torn in two
by Fireshine
Summary: Bella's parents have gone through a really rough divorce, but all that's behind them now... ish. but what happens when Bella meets Edward? will she spill everything to him? will he be able to help her? and what secret is he hiding?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – **OK, this was a little emotional to write because this actually happened to me, well, what I remember of my mum leaving my dad, so the details are a little hazy and I actually felt like crying when writing this, the night when my mum met my step dad actually happened as well, this I can remember a little more clearly but still kinda vague and hazy (btw names and some characters have been changed/added to relate to twilight and other reasons, but the relations to me are still the same) – so I hope you enjoy!

btw sorry this is so short but its just to set the scene

* * *

**prologue **

I remember shuffling down the hall, my mum picked me up roughly and placed me on her hip, without stopping shouting at my dad. It hurt my ears, I felt like crying. I looked through the living room door at my dad.

He was sat on our old sofa, he was frowning at my mum and trying to reply to the stream of accusations she was shooting at him, only mum wouldn't let him get a word in edgeways. My dad looked annoyed, frustrated, angry.

My heart ached for him, I wanted hold my daddy, he wasn't shouting and being scary like mum was. But my mum left, taking me with her.

I don't remember what happened after that. Maybe we stayed at my nanna's house for a few days? I remember moving into a small house, not like my dad's old Victorian one, with a real fireplace in every room. With my familiar room, the wallpaper with the farm animals on it, the huge bathroom with the heater in the corner where I used to sit in my towel and dry off like that instead of using the towel properly.

The new house was okay though, I got excited when I found out that there was a Mc Donnalds down the other end of the street, however, my mum was keen on healthy eating and we never went, but the temptation was always there, I walked past it everyday to go to pre-school, then drove past it everyday to go to primary school.

I remember the night when my life took a sharp turn and changed, never to be the same again.

We were visiting Nicole and Reese, their mum was my mum's cousin so we spent quite a bit of time there. But it was time to go. I hated leaving, I loved playing with Nicole and Reese was cool as well, the Nicole had a brilliant idea! We both begged, first her parents, then my mum to ave a sleepover. After much pestering, my mum eventually gave in.

We sat watching telly, we had been told to calm down and one sure way of doing that was the telly. I cant remember what we were watching but the door opened, Nicole's dad had forgot that an old army mate was coming to stay while he was on leave.

He walked through the door, "Wotcha everybody, my name's Phill," he introduced himself pleasantly.

"Hi, I'm Renee and this is Bella my daughter," my mum introduced herself, while I just waved shyly.

I often wondered what would have happened if Nicole hadn't had the idea of a sleepover, or if I hadn't pestered my mum as much and she hadn't given in. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, ten years later when I'm seventeen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1 – counting down  
**

I stared at my hand examining the tiny cut that was there, bright red, not being discreet at all about it's presence – visually at least. I twisted my hand a little, half convinced that from a certain angle the thin scarlet line would vanish. No such luck.

I sighed and finally gave up trying to work out where the cut had come from. I dumped my bowl in the sink and ran the hot water, putting a splash of washing-up liquid in and waiting for the water level to rise. I turned the tap off and my cut chose the moment I submerged my hands in the water to make itself known to me through the sense of touch rather than sight. I rolled my eyes at the small, stinging line on my hand and continued to wash up.

I went back upstairs checking my phone, as soon as I realised what time it was, I was running up the stairs to clean my teeth. I guess I had been wondering about the random, mystery cut longer than I thought.

"Bella? How do you spell mattress?" my mum called up the stairs.

"M-A-T-T-R-E-S-S," I recited, shouting back down the stairs after hurriedly spitting in the sink.

I ran back down the stairs, jumping the last two, and ran out the door grabbing my bag as I went past.

I called a quick "bye" over my shoulder and it was followed by the usual, "call if you're going anywhere or let out late!" I sighed and rolled my eyes.

I jumped into my rusted Chevy and prayed the engine would start before the average hundredth try. For once my prayer was granted. Wow.

I pulled into the space furthest from school, the down side – obviously – was that I had further to walk to the school buildings, which, in my world, translated as more chances to trip. However, the up side was that there would be less people to see me fall and less oh so witty remarks about my truck.

I went straight to English, I didn't care that the bell hadn't gone yet, I just wanted to sit... alone.

"Have you had a shower this morning?" I heard Brad ask in a patronizing tone as he peered down his nose at me.

"I had one last night," I replied frostily, not appreciating his implication that I smelt.

"Oh, so you had one _last_ night did you?" he tried to mimic the short sharp "a" sound in the word _last_ – like in bad or glad – instead of using the regional long "a" sound that made it sound like it should be spelt _larst_.

"Yes."

"Say last," he goaded, I could feel the familiar annoyance that pulled my face down into a frown and the defensiveness that tightened the muscles in my arms and make my nostrils slightly flared.

"No."

"Say bath."

"No."

"Say glass."

"No," I refused to get angry, speaking in a flat monotone, carefully under control.

Thankfully the teacher started the lesson and I didn't have to put up with any more of Brad's harassing... at least for another hour.

English was a drag, so was the rest of the day, even at lunch when I usually sat quietly in the corner on my own some people had to start on me. I tried to walk out the canteen with at least _some_ dignity, but my feet obviously had other plans because halfway to the door I tripped, landing flat on my face. Then, to make matters even worse, I stumbled _again_, while I was trying to get up! I ran out of the canteen which was, by then, collectively howling with laughter.

I stupidly wiped my pathetic tears away, knowing full well that until I got some measure of control over my own body they would continue to fall mercilessly, regardless of whether the sight of them would cause a whole new round of mocking to begin.

The tears had started flowing less often now, when I first moved here it used to be a couple of times a day, but now it was just a handful of times near the end of term. I tried to console myself that I was going to see my dad at the end of this week, with his nice new fiancé Sue, and her children; Seth and Leah.

Forks was a small town, so whenever I went there in the holidays I would always find my old friends there to hang around with, and in the last few years, I had been able to get mobile numbers and msn addresses and add them as friends on facebook. It helped me feel less isolated. It helped a lot that I was able to talk to my dad freely whenever I liked.

For the millionth time I wondered what I was still doing here, I would be so much happier living with my dad in Forks, I guess I just never had the courage to speak up about it. I fidgeted impatiently, I was desperate for this day to end, then I would only have four more days left until I was going to Forks again! Then I would have two weeks there! I was itching to leave now, instead of having to endure the rest of this day, which was slowly but surely crumbling around me.

I walked swiftly through the hall to biology, I held tightly onto my bag, cradling it against my chest, but then I felt a leftover tear prick my eye. I made a hasty dash with my hand to wipe it away – hopefully subtly – before anyone saw. But then Ollie reached out and pulled my bag out of my arm, effortlessly avoiding my flailing hands trying to grab my bag back.

But he turned his back on me and his _gang_ made an impenetrable human wall around him, all looking on with malicious eyes, like vultures. Why was I even trying to push them out of the way? They were all a lot bigger and heavier than me.

I heard him name the various items in my bag as he one by one lifted them out, and with a flourish, dropped them on the floor... until he found the homework which was due in next lesson, the lesson that Ollie was also in.

"Why thank you Bella," he said in a sickeningly polite tone, "I've been wondering where I had misplaced my homework, now I realise I had left it in your bag all along!"

With that he let my bag fall, unceremoniously, to the join it's previous contents and walked away laughing. I quickly struggled to pick up all my stuff before any more of it was stolen or the bell went. I succeeded in the first but not in avoiding being late.

The clamorous bell rang, making me jump and quickly grab the last sheets of paper resting on the floor and I hurried to class with the bell's obnoxious din ringing in my ears.

I walked through the door and noticed the class hadn't started yet. I also noticed the threatening pile of homework on the teacher's desk. I nervously walked over to her feeling not at all well inside.

"Don't worry Bella," she muttered to me, so that the rest of the class couldn't hear, "Ollie has already handed in your homework for you," she smirked reassuringly and I felt one corner of my mouth twitch in response, this was why miss Everett was my favourite teacher.

I went to collapse with relief onto my seat in the back of the classroom. I liked history, not only did I love the subject, but I got to sit by myself and the teacher was really kind as well. I was so glad I had double history on Friday, it would make the last day of term just that little bit more bearable.

I got home. I saw Phill's car. It was alone in the drive. I almost turned around and went back to school.

I sighed and walked into my house hoping that Phill was in a good mood. Unfortunately he wasn't, and I had no mum here to act as a buffer.

When I trudged through the door Phill was sat on the sofa eating a bowl of cereal, "Where do you think you've been?" he asked menacingly, I knew that whatever answer I gave him now would set him off, so I went for the truth.

"School."

"Don't play smart with me missy!"

I stayed silent as he stalked through the living room, headed straight towards me. I automatically flinched when he reached me, but he grabbed my ear and started towing me roughly upstairs, I fell a few times but this would only make him yank my ear upwards, really hard. The pain made my eyes water, but I didn't sob, there was no way in hell that I going to sob in front of Phill.

I used to think he was a decent guy, until he married my mum. So much for the first impression always being the right one.

He threw me into my room and my head landed on my bedside table, he laughed and walked back downstairs. I felt my head gingerly, bugger, there was a cut. I felt my hand smear the blood trail that was already beginning to trickle down my forehead. I crept to the bathroom to wash the blood off my face and apply a plaster.

I tiptoed back across the landing and into my room once again, with a huff, I practically threw myself under my bed to receive the laptop that my dad had given my one year so we could keep in touch more easily, plus he thought it would help with my school work. I needed to cheer myself up so I logged into facebook and started checking my friends' statuses.

Some of their statuses were pretty funny, and a lot of them were interesting. It seemed like a new family had moved to Forks, and my the sounds of it, all of them, Edward in particular were really attractive. I laughed to myself as I scrolled down my home page, looking at all the status updates, it looked like this Edward had almost all the girls in Forks crushing on him already, they had only moved in on the weekend!

I heard my mum come in and go straight to Phill. Ten minutes later I heard her running up the stairs, to my room. The door burst open and my mum jumped to sit on the bed next to me like we were best friends.

"Oh my god this is so exciting!" she gushed, "I found out the news today and oh my god it's so wonderful, you'll never guess!"

"What?" I asked trying to be enthusiastic, with limited success.

"Well..." she paused dramatically, "I'm pregnant! Oh this is just brilliant! We'll be a real family, this life is perfect! I never want it to end! The only thing I would change though," she became thoughtful and utterly serious, "Is... well, I wish you were _his_ as well."

I blanched, my face stayed still, not betraying how sick I felt inside. Tears started to well up in my eyes , I turned my face away so my mum wouldn't see them, but she had already danced out of my room by the time I broke down and started crying. I was kinda glad that no one was around to see how much my own mother's words had hurt me. My chest felt clogged up, and my throat felt scratchy as I closed the door, knowing that I wouldn't be able to hold back the grief and the disgust inside me, the door was the only thing separating my misery and my mum's ecstasy, the only thing that would stop Phill form hearing this and... I didn't particularly want to finish that thought.

I switched off my laptop, knowing that I wouldn't be able to feel the slightest bit cheerful now, and anything I did to try and cheer me up would end up ruined, so I did some homework, making sure I put my name on it.

As my focus switched from my mum's words to my homework, I felt my mood improving. I felt the tears evaporate into salty stains, I felt the red puffiness around my eyes shrink a little and I felt thirsty. As soon as I was sure no more tears would escape me, I went to wash my face.

I examined my freshly dry face in the mirror and decided that all traces of my break down were gone. It was safe to go downstairs and get started on dinner. I got my ipod – another present form my dad – and stuck that in my ears, trying to drown out the mockery of a celebration that was going on in the living room.

But then my ipod ran out of charge and I was almost surprised to find I was dishing up spaghetti bolognese into three dishes. I sighed, remembering being so stubborn about food when I was little, my mum often told me that the only way to get me to eat was by making me spaghetti bolognese. Predictably, it was the first meal I learned to cook.

I set the food on the table and went to living room to announce that dinner was ready. I sat and ate in dejected silence, listening to my mum rambling on about how excited she was about the baby and how much she loved Phill, blah blah blah, it was stomach turning.

I hadn't even got half way through my dinner before I tried to excuse myself from the table, but my mum told me I had to stay there until they had finished. I mentally groaned as there was more talking and.... cringeworthy stuff – lets just leave it at that – than eating.

Eventually my mum noticed the still, mostly full, plate in front of me. Then she twigged that something was up.

"Honey, are you okay? You haven't eaten your bolognese, that's really not like you," she asked slightly concerned.

"I just feel a little sick," I stated dully.

"Hmm, maybe it's the excitement," oh yeah, _of course_ it was the excitement, "maybe you should go lie down for a bit."

Grateful for the escape, I quickly made my way to my room. I managed to get Tuesday off, which was good, I hated Tuesdays. But then Wednesday came around all too soon.

Of course there were hundreds of ridiculous rumours about why I hadn't been there yesterday; I had been busy murdering someone in the desert, I had got knocked up, I was working as a prostitute... some of the rumours going into such explicit detail I wondered how their imaginations could come up with such disgusting fantasies.

_Just two more days after today Bella you can do this!_ I kept chanting to myself over and over again throughout the day.

* * *

**A/N –** OK some things made up for the benefit of the story; Phill being abusive and Bella getting bullied.

Other things not made up for the benefit of the story; me only eating spaghetti bolognese when I was small (lol)and my mum saying that she wished I was my step dads daughter, I do like my step dad but I love my dad even more and it did kinda hurt a little when she said it, but my mum hates my dad so I just have to get over it really.

Please remember to review!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2 - home**

_Finally!_

It was Friday, it was the afternoon and all I had left was double history. I felt my mood improve considerably. But however much I liked history, I couldn't wait for it to end. As soon as the bells rang I would be going to pick my bag up then my mum would be driving me to the airport.

My foot was tapping out a fast rhythm against my chair leg, and my hand was bouncing my pen up and down on my book in front of me. I stared at the clock wishing that the hands would move with at least a _little_ bit of enthusiasm rather than crawling sluggishly around the clock. My hand was unconsciously inching towards my bag eager to pack up and be off already.

For about two hours I sat there, rigidly staring at the lethargic clock, so it wasn't surprising that I had cramp when I finally stood up. It also wasn't surprising that due to my clumsiness – that had proven useful over the years in explaining any bruises or cuts etc. that Phill had bestowed upon me – mixing with the cramp in my leg, I fell right into the table. But after numerous hoots of laughter and catcalls I made it to my truck.

_Ahh, my truck!_

My haven. It smelled of old leather mixed with dust. It reminded me of rich old men who sat around smoking expensive cigars and enjoying the life of luxury, even though I couldn't imagine someone like that driving a Chevy but still, I could just imagine the spicy smoke swirling pleasantly around me in elegant spirals and other mesmerising shapes.

Of course I knew smoking was bad. My mum had smoked, but she gave up when she fell pregnant with me, of course the damage was already done, I had gone on a few runs with her, and sometimes it was honestly scary how out of breath she got. Occasionally should have to stop, struggling for breath, some times coughing and spluttering as well, and use her inhaler, while I stood watching, unable to help.

Unfortunately, the same went for my dad, although I never went on runs with him, if he started laughing hard at anything he would always end up choking, it sounded horrible and disgusting. And to tell the truth, it sometimes made me anxious – possibly my anxiety was irrational, but my dad was into his fifties, he was greying already, and to sit there and watch your dad almost choke his lungs up... its not pleasant.

I stuck my key in the ignition and twisted it, and then I twisted it again. By about the fifth try I got the engine started, but by then I would be one of the last to leave the car park and therefore having to endure the traffic jams and queues all the way back to my house.

I got home later than I was planning to, but my bags were already packed, as they had been all week. I had packed and repacked everything several times everyday since Wednesday. I was so excited, and now I would have to wait just that little bit longer to see my dad, I sat fuming behind the steering wheel as I pulled into the drive.

I pulled myself together as I got out the car and ran into the house to get my stuff. I tripped on the door frame as I tried to dash through it I fell and banged my shin painfully, having no time for recovery, I bounced back up and sprinted to my room. Two seconds later I was struggling down the narrow stairs with my bags. My mum was already getting into her car to drive me to the airport, she was hounding me to hurry up. She wasn't in the best of moods, but she wasn't too moody either, she was carefully indifferent. I knew my mum hated my dad, for some reason – I didn't really want to know – but she knew it was unreasonable to even try to stop me seeing him.

My impatience in the car was obvious, I was a ball of energy, I wouldn't, _couldn't,_ stop fidgeting. I had brought a book to read in the car and on the plane but I couldn't concentrate enough to read it. I was always eager to visit my dad in the holidays, but this time... I don't know, it felt like I would explode if I didn't get there soon enough.

We got to the familiar airport, said the ritual goodbyes – her trying to get me to promise to call everyday while I just rolled my eyes and wished I was on the plane already – I went through routine of getting through the airport and onto the plane. At last I was on the last leg of the journey, before I saw my dad again, I hoped it would be him picking me up, I had missed him so much, Sue and Seth and Leah as well!

The flight was _endless!_ I swear I thought the pilot had kidnapped all of the passengers and would continue to circle the skies until he died of old age. Ugh! Just hurry _up_ already! I need to be there _now!_

I bounced my feet on the floor, drummed my fingers on the armrest, chewed my nails, bit my lip... you name it I did it – unless you're going to be stupid and suggest murdering someone, because I can tell you with all honesty I didn't do that, although at various points in the journey I sure felt like it!

We glided oh so gently into the airport near Forks, then we continued to roll _extremely _casually down the runway. I swear I don't know how I managed to not explode, maybe it was my concern for the flight attendants and the mess they would have to clean up.

After enough time for me to hibernate like a bear for the winter – which was _really_ long since it was the summer – we were allowed off the plane. I impatiently waited at the baggage hall, wishing super fiercely with every suitcase that mine would be next. Eventually my wish was granted – yeah I know, it had to come out some time right? Then I walked along the slightly confusing corridors to where I knew my dad would be waiting.

I saw him, felt the grin claim my face and couldn't help myself as I ran towards him, as best I could, then dropped my bags and jumped up to hug him. Anyone would think I hadn't seen him in years rather than about six weeks, but hey, I missed him a lot.

My dad chuckled and spun me round, "hello baby girl!" he greeted me.

"Daddy!" I shouted back slightly childishly, but I didn't care.

He put me down, "you ready?" he asked cheerily.

I nodded, it was earlier here than in Phoenix and no doubt Seth and Leah would want to drag me out to see everyone, no matter how tired I was, like they did every time I came back home, so I gave up complaining about it. However, I did manage to always get a few minutes to unpack and get myself settled first.

When we got to the house, Sue was there, she welcomed me warmly and then I hauled my stuff up the familiar stairs, and to my old room that had belonged to me ever since I was born. I put my suitcase on the end of my bed, I contemplated unpacking, but then just collapsed on my bed instead. I would have a few minutes before Seth and Leah came rushing up to drag me out.

Loud banging woke me up. It was the kind of banging someone makes when they are hitting wood very hard with something rubber. I groaned, Seth and Leah were running up the stairs, _great!_

I groaned quietly, I knew what was coming, I also knew there was no getting out of it, even though all I wanted to do was sleep. They burst through my door, they knew I knew what would happen next so they made no attempt to persuade, ask permission or explain, they just grabbed my hands – which were already held out to them in anticipation of this very scene – and pulled me off the bed and out the house.

They dragged me to the only park in forks, where everyone – literally everyone I knew in Forks – was gathered. They thought it would be easier on me if I got seeing everyone over and done with in one trip. It was fun, really fun, the best time I'd had in... since last time I was here. But then I became too tired to enjoy it. Okay, I know I only travelled across one time-zone, but its still quite tiring – and if you don't believe sitting doing practically nothing for a good, solid amount of time, then you are very naive and have obviously not travelled very far.

It was even starting to get dark here when we finally walked back through the door. Sue had cooked us a delicious shepherd's pie and I had one big helping. The conversation flowed easily, and I got a temporary perk from the food going into me and enjoyed the jokes and light banter that filled the table. However, as soon as I stopped supplying my body with food, it started to throw a tantrum.

My eyelids drooped and I couldn't stop myself from yawning, a lot. Knowing that I would end up falling asleep at the table soon if I didn't do anything about it, I excused myself from the table and went to bed.

I woke up early, at half past seven – half eight in Phoenix, I could never sleep in until noon like the popular teenage stereotype, but I had never been a stereotype in my life, Seth and Leah on the other hand...

My dad woke up about two hours after me, I had already got dressed and cleaned my teeth and was now sat reading the host. I heard my dad shuffle down the stairs then lumber to the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast.

I heard my dad open the back door, I heard some kind of scratching on the kitchen tiles, then the next thing I knew there was a dog – and a decent sized dog at that – jumping all over my lap. I jerked back to get my face out of its way, but that gave it more space to turn around and start licking my face and trying to jump over my shoulders. I screwed up my face in shock and the dislike of a strange dog – kind of aggressively – licking my face.

"Ace! Down!" I heard my dad yell at the dog.

_Ace_ jumped of my lap, his claws scratching my leg ever so slightly, and went to stand for a split second at my dad's feet before running back over to me, only my dad called him back again before he could jump up, again. He was so funny, he had too much energy, and didn't know what to do with it all, he went back and forth between my dad and me for a while until dad finally got him under control, while I tried not to laugh... it didn't work but at least I tried, right?

I walked the dog with my dad, it was fun... and cold. My dad leant me his parka and a hat... and a scarf... and some gloves. Yeah, I know, its Forks, cold weather is to be expected right? But the fact was that shops just don't sell those items of clothing where its always warm and sunny.

When we got back it was still before noon, still before a reasonable time to see any sign of teenage activity in the house. However, there were signs of motherly/step-motherly activity. I smelt the bacon as soon as I stepped through the front door. I inhaled deeply, cherishing the warm scent and the accompanying sizzling my mouth started to water in acute anticipation of the _taste!_ I swear I hadn't had bacon in for ever.

I was halfway through my full English breakfast/lunch – it was only quarter to twelve when me and my dad got back – when Seth stumbled, bare-foot and still in his pyjamas, down the stairs, I was surprised he made it to his chair without falling flat on his face. He sat at the kitchen table with bleary eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them.

Sue placed a plate in front of him, it was almost completely hidden by the amount of food covering it. Seth blinked a few times then dug in like there was no tomorrow.

"Steady on kid!" My dad said, "You'll choke."

Seth gulped down what was left in his mouth, "I'm starving."

"Well, no-one's going to steal it, you will be able to eat all of that in your own good time."

"My own good time is fifteen seconds flat," Seth retorted, I laughed and so did everyone else.

Another three quarters of an hour later Leah arrived in the kitchen, completely awake, dressed and with make-up fully applied, apart from lipstick. She hoisted herself up onto the only free stool left, and was greeted by a bowl of muesli. I liked how Sue knew her kids well enough not to even ask, she just got it right all the time, my mum didn't really ask either, she just got it wrong or didn't bother.

What touched me even more was... she knew me inside out as well. Sure there were some things she wasn't sure about, but she knew how to handle the situations sensitively. With a pang I realised that I wished Sue was my mum instead. I felt guilty for thinking that, just a small twinge of unease that was instantly overcome and forgotten.

Again, me Seth and Leah went out, we spent a lot of time at the park, just hanging out with friends. Once we but all our money together and brought lots of sweets and chocolate and red bull and coke. We went _so_ hyper that day, it was unreal.

* * *

**A/N- **in the last chappy I forgot to mention the accent thingy – I got that but it was mostly just friends winding me up or they were just amazed to realise that I spoke differently and they never noticed for *cough three years cough cough*

and back to this chappy, I do only get to see my dad in the holidays, and yes I do miss him loads, the smoking thingy with my mum and dad is also true, my mum does hate my dad, my mum does try to make me call her everyday when I go to Grimsby (where my dad and practically all my blood relatives live), I did know a dog called ace – he was a border collie but He's dead now *sniff sniff* and my dad does have a dog but its not a border collie, He's called dave (yeah I know, funny name for a dog but there you go), and I've done the hyper thing, but that wasn't in Grimsby that was a drunk thing and a whole different story (it wasn't me that got drunk before you ask!!! what do you take me for?!?!?)

and please review!! they do make me smile!! (I actually sit grinning from ear to ear at the screen like an idiot!!) plus I have big plans for chapter three!!!!!! I cant wait!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3 – no!!!!**

It was Wednesday and I was enjoying a nice morning shower. The hot water felt good as it ran from the top of my head right down to my feet, spreading warmth and comfort. Yesterdays hyper session had left me with aching muscles all over my body, I never knew I had this many muscles, seriously! How hard is it for a muscle to multi task? Then perhaps there would be less pain and stiffness in the morning. But the hot water was doing its job very well, unknotting the tensed and awkward muscles in my neck and.. practically everywhere.

I didn't want to get out the shower, if I had my way I would've stayed in there all day. But eventually I knew I had to get out. I laughed to myself as immediately after I left the bathroom Leah ran and flew through the door, and slammed it shut in Seth's face only pausing to laugh at him. I heard the shower start up again and silently prayed Leah wouldn't demonstrate exactly how lacking she was in the area of vocal talents.

Then I heard the phone ring, I went to grab it but my dad picked it up at the same time as me, beating me to being the first to say hello. Then I blanched as I heard my mum's voice on the other end on the line.

(_Renee, _**Charlie**)

_Hello Charlie is Bella there please? I need to talk to her._

**She's in the shower at the moment, what do you need to tell her?**

_Well, she needs to come back a week early and I think it would be a good idea for you to increase your maintenance._

**Why? What's happened?**

_I'm having another baby._

**What does that have to do with Bella needing to come home early? Or me increasing my maintenance?**

_Well, I'm going to be very delicate soon! I just want Bella to be there to help out... and a baby puts lots of financial strain on a family, you should know this!_

**I'm sorry Renee, but I don't think it's my responsibility to provide for your new baby, I pay enough to take good care of Bella, in fact she could probably live off the** **amount of maintenance I pay, I have a family here, too Renee and I don't ask you for a penny.**

_But Phill's business isn't that great! How will we get the money to live?_

**Tell him to get a better job.**

_Get Bella to call back when she's out the shower, she needs to come back in three days!_

**Don't you think Bella should get a choice? You're not that pregnant yet, you can still look after yourself perfectly well for another week and a half.**

_I'm _having _a _baby!

And with that, my mum slammed the phone down. I couldn't help the tears running down my face, the sound of my mum screeching down the phone at my dad was ringing in my ears. What made it even worse was that my dad was being perfectly civil and polite to her.

I ran out of the house before anyone could stop me get me to spill, I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. I think my dad noticed though.

I ran into the meadow, it was a place I came to when I was upset, I never told anyone about it and not many people went walking in this area of the woods so it was pretty safe from discovery... or so I thought.

I saw a head of messy, bronze hair. There was a boy leaning against the rock near the middle of my meadow – okay, I knew it wasn't _my_ meadow, but it was still a shock to discover someone else knew about it – his head was bowed and his shoulders were hunched. I stepped forward noticing how the play of light across his hair made it shine.

He heard my halting, hesitant approach and quickly stood up and turned to look at me like he was embarrassed.

I was met with startlingly green eyes, they seemed to sparkle in the rare sunshine, and I immediately forgot my worries. Was it possible I had a guardian angel? I quickly dismissed my ridiculous thoughts, of course I didn't! But he was enough to prove the mere existence of angels.

"Erm..." he trailed off embarrassed.

I noticed he looked pretty upset too, "Sorry," I apologised, not wanting to intrude.

"No, it's nothing," he said quickly, "I just found this place the other day and it looked so beautiful and peaceful."

"Yeah," I agreed lamely, "I like to come here when I'm upset, it helps me think clearly."

He looked at me as if he were concentrating on something, "Do you... live in Forks? I've only been here a few weeks but I don't remember seeing you at school."

"Oh, no, I'm visiting my dad in the holidays, but I've always come here."

We lapsed into a slightly awkward silence and I came to sit next to where he had just been sat, leaning my back against the rock as well. After a moments hesitation he sat back down next to me. We both stared out away from Forks and towards the valley.

"So, why did you come here?" he asked softly, wondering what I was upset about, "You don't have to tell me if its something private... but sometimes I find sharing helps."

I looked up at him, into his warm green eyes that reminded me of summer and meadows like this and absently noticed their beauty and their brilliance, how could I not trust these eyes? And I think that was what I needed, someone on the outside, someone who was neutral.

"No, its okay, I just heard my mum demanding that I go back to phoenix within three days."

"And you don't want to go back?" he guessed, well that conclusion was a pretty obvious one.

I didn't want to sound like a spoiled brat so explained, "my mum's having a baby with Phill, I don't know why, the guy's a pig, I hate him, but then I cant leave my mum to bring up a baby on her own," I frowned t the conundrum that faced me.

"Is Phill away a lot then?" another guess, another decent conclusion to draw, but this time he was wrong.

"No, he's just two faced, he's the picture of a loving husband when mum's around and when she leaves, he's... not," I finished lamely, don't remember ever planning to tell anyone this for as long as I live, but here I was pouring my heart out to complete stranger, but for some inexplicable reason, I found myself trusting him.

Edward, I guessed it was him from the detailed descriptions on facebook and the fact that he was utterly gorgeous, looked down at me in such sympathy, he looked almost as pained as I felt.

"Well, maybe you don't have to go back then, by the sound of it, Phill and your mum will get by."

"I'll have hell to pay when I do go back though, I bet it was Phill's idea in the first place."

"No, I meant what if you just _don't_ go back? What if you come live with your dad? I've heard people can do that, if the child really doesn't want to live with one parent even if that parent doesn't want to let them go, they can still move to the other parent's house and there's nothing anyone can do about it practically."

I hadn't even considered that before Edward mentioned it, but he had given me something to seriously think about.

I looked up at him, he smiled tentatively at me and I smiled back, "Thanks," I said.

"No problem."

After a few moments I repeated his own words,"So, why did you come here? You don't have to tell me if its something private, but sometimes I find sharing helps." I smiled at him again and he smiled back, but that quickly faltered and fell of his face as he sighed.

"I would tell you, honestly I would if I could, but... its not my secret to tell," he finished frustrated – okay, now I knew why I trusted him, he was so... noble – and for a moment he looked entirely lost and hopeless.

I ached to comfort him, like he had me, I put my hand on top of his fist, working my fingers into his palm, softly though, maybe he didn't want to hold my hand. As my fingers brushed his skin, we both got an electric shock, he tensed but after a moment, his fist loosened and he let me in, I squeezed his hand, for encouragement or comfort or both, whichever worked best.

"It's, just that..." he continued determined to tell me but still keep his secret, I wouldn't pressure him, "I found out today, that I've been lied to practically my whole life, Carlisle, Esme, my adoptive family... they're not who I thought they were," finished sadly.

Even though I was already holding his hand, my urge to comfort him grew even more, I laid my head on his shoulder and sighed. I was suddenly burning, the sun had finally warmed me up, like it did in phoenix, that was the one thing I liked about phoenix, the heat.

It was nice sitting there, the silence was like a comfortable blanket, made from understanding and acceptance with not one fibre of patronization, pity or judgement. I could've sat like that forever. But eventually it got dark, we had a beautiful view of the sunset by our rock and I was quite content to sleep there, but my stomach had other ideas. I sighed at the rumbling and let out a small giggle, I was in a much better mood and I wasn't sure how much of that was due to Edward or the meadow.

I got up, sure my hasty exit from the house this morning was noticed and my dad would probably be starting to worry soon, . But he wasn't worried yet, I hadn't a call or a text all day.

Edward looked up at me expectantly, "do you want my number? In case you want to talk again, I know what it's like living in a house where you don't really trust anyone," I blurted out, oh dear, he would definitely think I was a stalker now wouldn't he?

"I... don't... I don't think I'm going back to my house," he stated glumly.

"Was it that bad?" I sat back down next to him.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"What are you going to do then?" I was concerned, not stalking!

"I don't know, I didn't really think things through when I ran out of the house earlier."

Would it seem creepy? I just didn't like the thought of him effectively homeless, with nowhere to go even for one night, so again I just blurted it out, my mouth refusing to consult my brain before going ahead with what was probably going to be a very bad idea.

"Do you want to come back home with me?" I internally cringed, waiting for his outrage or his fear of being stalked or his laugh at such a ridiculous idea...

"Really? Wow... okay... thank you," okay, what?

I could see he was almost overcome with gratitude and I had to admit I was looking forward to the idea as well... okay, what? My own thoughts were even starting to confuse me now.

We started heading back to my house. We were nearing the edge of the woods when, ridiculously, I tripped over a protruding root and bashed my head in the same place as the healing cut I had received from Phill, great. Edward was at my side in an instant, he helped me up and gasped at the sight of my head. To be honest I was starting to feel a little dizzy.

"Erm..." I realised he didn't know my name.

"I'm Bella by the way, and you are?" I said dazed, I wasn't thinking clearly.

"I'm Edward, are you okay? Do you feel dizzy? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"cool, yes, yes, three and I don't want to go to the hospital, just take me home please."

He seemed to be satisfied with my answers, "Okay, where do you live?"

I gave him directions, we weren't really that far from my house, and the streets would be pretty much deserted. After I finished I started to get up and almost fell over even with Edward supporting me. He barely managed to keep me upright and almost fell over himself in the process. After he had steadied us he studied me for a minute then swept me up in his arms gently and carried me home, what a gentleman.

As he walked up the drive I – having recovered my powers of rational and coherent thought somewhat – started digging in my pockets for my key. I held it up just as we reached the door.

Edward looked first at the key, then at me, "Are you alright to stand?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes, "yes," I sighed.

He put me down like he was worried I was about to break, and internally I laughed at this. I unlocked the door and walked into an empty house with Edward by my side. I flicked the lights on as I went through to the kitchen and I pressed the button on the phone to listen to the answer phone messages while I got the mini first aid kit out of the cupboard. It turned out that dad was working tonight, Sue had been called into the hospital where she worked as a nurse and both Seth and Leah were having sleepovers, wow, it looked like I was alone for the night with Edward, kinda convenient really – not in that way! Ugh!

I could feel Edward's eyes on me since entering the house, but then as I went to open the bag I felt his hand on top of mine, stopping me.

I looked up at him and he nodded to a stool, "sit" he commanded.

I sighed and went to sit in the stool nearest to me, this was really unnecessary, I could do it myself. I tried to tell him this but he countered well, saying that if I couldn't walk myself home, he wasn't going to let me even try doing this by myself. I didn't argue any more as he tended to my head. After the stinging of trying to clean the wound had gone, I closed my eyes and realised his, soft gentle touched actually felt rather nice, sending pleasant shivers down my spine.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

I looked down and I had goosebumps all over, "only a little."

"Hmm, well I don't think you have concussion, you seemed to be fully aware of your surroundings all the time, just a little dizzy, but it would still be wise to wake you up every couple of hours tonight, just in case."

"All right then, I apologise," I said.

"Erm, for what?"

"For, biting your head off when you wake me up in the middle of the night."

"Oh," he snickered, "Well, then I accept."

Once he was finished I got a pizza out the freezer and stuck that in the oven. I knew it wasn't a lot to share between two people but Edward assured me he was fine with it. I ate the pizza quickly, grateful to finally have something in my stomach, I hadn't eaten since breakfast, hadn't noticed sitting next to Edward in the meadow but now I was ravenous.

Half an hour later, we were both sat on my bed in pyjamas – Edward had borrowed some of Seth's never before worn pyjamas, he wouldn't notice if they went missing, heck, I don't think he even noticed Sue had gone out and bought him new pyjamas! – discussing the sleeping arrangements. Edward refused to accept my bed.

"No, Bella! I can't ask you to sleep on the floor in your own house!"

"It's not that bad on the floor once we get the sofa cushions up here, and it's the least I could do after you carry me all the way back here because I went and tripped over a stupid tree root!"

We both looked at each other for a minute and then burst out laughing. We were both being so stubborn and immature about it. We recovered from our laughing fits and turned the conversation to other things such as how to make the perfect sleepover. We settled on a horror film and popcorn and ice-cream.

So that's what we eventually did, we crept back downstairs and I looked for a suitable film while Edward went and found the ice-cream and popcorn. I picked the Amityville horror and put that in the DVD player as Edward walked in carrying a bowl of popcorn and a tub of Ben and Jerry's with two spoons sticking out.

We grinned at each other like we had been friends since we were born and we both went to get under the quilt we had stolen from my bed. I curled up and leaned against Edward's side while grabbing a spoon and took a decent sized mouthful before even realising it was cookie dough flavour.

"Cookie dough!" I squealed – if anything can get me excited it's ice-cream – grinning at him and probably scaring him too, "It's my favourite!"

He laughed, "I must confess, it's my favourite as well."

I grinned at him again and went back to watching and eating. The Amityville horror finished so we put another film in; nightmare on elm street, sometimes the classics are best. But I didn't see much of it, one minute I was watching the opening titles, the next I was hearing a lovely voice in my ear telling me to wake up.

I didn't want to wake up, I was too comfy as I was. My pillow wasn't really soft, but my head fit into it's shape perfectly, making it just as comfortable anyway, and it smelt wonderful. It was warm as well, the pillow went from my head down the length of my body... and it was moving.

I jerked back up to a sitting position on the sofa then saw Edward looking at me sleepily, but I could see the surprise through the sleep and I relaxed immediately and started laughing.

"What?" he demanded when I laughed.

"Oh, nothing just that I thought you were my pillow... and your face was quite funny," I replied through my giggles.

He rolled his eyes but smirked at me, "Was I a comfortable pillow then?"

"Erm..." I didn't know how to answer that, so I blushed and then it was his turn to laugh.

We both yawned at the same time, and that brought on another round of laughter, but this was lazy laughter and quickly gave way to more yawning. Without thinking about it, I lay back down on his chest and almost immediately I was asleep again.

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**A/N- **OK the phone convo was taken from snippets i'd overheard separately, and the rest is purely twilight.

Please review!!!! and also check out my other story Identically opposite, and review that too coz I have no idea what to do for chapter 14 on that one so far I have two votes for vamps and one vote against, its not really enough to get a proper majority!!!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N- **OK, I'm warning you now, this chapter kinda got away from me a bit here... and I kinda apologise for its weirdness, blame the chapter not me!!!! I swear it has a mind of it's own!

* * *

**Chapter 4 – water can be interesting**

**Edward's pov**

The buzzing of my phone woke me up. I was still asleep when I tried to roll over to search for my phone. I didn't manage to complete the roll as I felt a gentle pressure on my side, holding me down.

I looked around me properly and noticed Bella, I may not have been aware of much else, but I was aware of Bella, acutely aware of Bella. Then I remembered why my phone was buzzing. Bella needed to wake up.

"Bella? Bella, wake up, you need to wake up Bella," I said softly in her ear, partly because I didn't want to startle her, partly because I was still half asleep and hadn't quite found my voice yet.

She inhaled deeply and sighed, she stirred slightly... and then jerked up to a sitting position like she'd just received an electric shock. I was dully surprised, sleep taking the edge off my emotions. I stared into her wide chocolate eyes, she looked like a deer caught in rapidly approaching headlights and I started to worry if she regretted waking up on my chest, I certainly didn't regret waking up with her on top of me – okay, that sounded kinda weird – but then she burst into laughter. The sound was mesmerising and it took a lot longer than it should have to realise she was probably laughing at me.

"What?" I demanded.

"Oh, nothing just that I thought you were my pillow... and your face was quite funny," she replied through her giggles.

I rolled my eyes and smirked, "was I a comfortable pillow then?" I couldn't help tease her.

"Erm..." she seemed hesitant, then blushed, I had to laugh at that.

We both yawned at the same time, and that brought on another round of laughter, but this was lazy laughter and quickly gave way to more yawning. I was surprised and on the edge of sleep again when she lay back down on top of me to go to sleep. I went back to sleep with a smile on my face.

I woke up again, this time naturally. I was sprawled out over the sofa, one arm trailing on the floor, Bella was nowhere in sight. Dammit! I realised I was supposed to wake her up every couple of hours through out the night, and I forgot! I wondered where she was, I sat up on the sofa, and realised the quilt was very neat on top of me, maybe I hadn't tossed and turned as much as usual in the night.

I folded the quilt up and placed it on one end of the sofa with the pillow on top of it and wondered out of the living room. I heard the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen and went to investigate. Bella had her back to me and she was busy cooking, I noticed she had her ipod in, so she didn't hear it when I came further into the room, slowly. I didn't once take my eyes off her, her rich, mahogany hair cascaded down her back and seemed to tremble a little with every movement of her head.

I stood enthralled for a few minutes, then remembered where – and who – I was. I pulled out a stool and Bella whipped round to face me at the loud noise. I looked up to see her smirking at me.

"Have a nice sleep?" she said, her voice seemed to be thick with implications but I was bewildered, so I answered her words evenly.

"It was a pleasant sleep, thank you."

Her eyes seemed to travel down my body, hit the table, then rebound back up to my face, it was a short journey. She quickly turned back to the food she was cooking and busied herself with preparing two breakfasts.

"How's your head?" I asked, "do you have a headache at all?"

"My head is fine thank you very much Edward," the pit of my stomach twisted in a weird way, and then Bella set a plate, filled with the most marvellous fried breakfast I had ever seen in front of me.

I gulped the food down into my eagerly awaiting stomach and sighed as my mouth melted, Bella was a good cook. She hadn't been in the mood last night to cook more than the single pizza in the freezer – and I didn't blame her – so I had said I was fine with sharing, but I was starving still, when that was finished, and then half a bowl of popcorn and about half a tub of ice-cream wasn't very filling.

"I swear this is the best breakfast I've ever had in my life! Thanks," I said sincerely to Bella smiling.

She blushed and mumbled something along the lines of "you're welcome."

We ate in comfortable silence, I finished my breakfast in record time, and decided that its only fair that since Bella cooked the breakfast, I should wash up. Hold on a second... I'd never _willingly_ washed up before, sure I have washed up, but always after being told to... what's happening to me?

I washed up everything refusing to let Bella wash up her own plate. I was surprised when she gave in easily, but then had to roll my eyes when she got a dishcloth out and started drying and putting away. She saw my eye roll and smacked me playfully with the damp cloth. I waited until she was least expecting it to get my revenge, I flicked some water in her face. She cringed away blinking rapidly, then she turned on me.

She seemed to take my grin as a challenge, she stuck her hand in the water and splashed me. This was not a dainty little flick like I was expecting, this was a splash designed to get me quite wet, rather than merely damp. I looked at her, through the water running down my face, and dripping onto my t-shirt which already had wet spots on it. Okay, this was war.

We kept splashing each other until Bella had the oh so wonderful idea of using a mug to sneak up behind me and pour its contents all down the back of my neck. I shuddered, the water was getting quite cold now, then I had a brainwave. I turned and grabbed her, I towed her, shrieking, towards the sink where I held her prisoner and we both wrestled for control of the mug. In the end we both got drenched.

I finally put an end to our battle by pulling the plug in the sink and holding her arms securely behind her back while trying to keep her away from the sink, not giving her a last minute chance to get me even more wet. She put up a good fight, but I managed to keep her away from the sink long enough for all the water to drain away.

I heard a key rattle in the lock, "oh, crap!" Bella gasped, alarmed now.

She turned to me with wide eyes, then her eyes flickered down to my wet top and back up to my dripping face. Of course someone coming in now would get the wrong idea, and we had only just met! Woops.

I heard the key grating against the lock, time was running out. What to do?! I started to panic a little, not that we had been up to anything bad really, I was just a little afraid of the likely reaction her dad was going to have when he walked through the door.

"Quick!" Bella hissed at me and she dragged me upstairs and shoved me in the bathroom.

Bella got halfway through the door before turning and whipping a towel off the banister and then shutting and locking the bathroom behind her. We were both panting and shaking slightly from both the panic and the mad sprint up the stairs. We both started silently sniggering and sunk to the floor.

"Bella? You gonna get in the shower?" I heard a voice call up the stairs.

"Uhh... yeah." Bella called back, impressing me with the amount of control she possessed over her laughter.

"Should I flick the hot water on?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Bella looked back at me, I'll probably have to turn the shower on then. I laughed again, this was becoming quite complicated.

Then we heard the other girl again, "if you want to borrow my hair dryer and straighteners you can," she was on the other side of the door now.

I held my breath in a desperate attempt to stay silent. I could feel the chuckles bubbling up my throat from my chest, threatening to force their way out through my lips and explode into the supposedly empty – apart from Bella – bathroom.

Bella sighed frustrated, "Do you want to do my hair when I get out?"

"Ooh Bella thank you!" she squealed.

"Why? What do you want? Or should I say who do you want to show me off to?" I could hear her voice go from purely exasperated to having an edge of annoyance under it.

"No-one," the voice replied innocently.

"Leah!" Bella growled, but the voice was already laughing down the landing probably going into the bedroom that, like the voice, was owned by what I'm guessing was Bella's stepsister.

Bella turned to me, visibly fuming and then winced when we both heard Leah's voice again, "Bella, I want you squeaky clean when you get out of there!"

Bella blanched and I looked at her confused, why was she afraid of being clean? She started to get really nervous and fidgety and wouldn't meet my eyes. She blushed and then it occurred to me... she would have to take a _shower!_ With me in the bathroom _at the same time!_

Right... I cleared my throat, "Is there a window I can escape from?" I asked slightly awkwardly.

Bella only shook her head. Her eyes flickered for a moment to the tiny pane of frosted glass set immovably in the wall. Ah.

My own eyes travelled to the shower which was slowly steaming up the room. I noticed the solid walls, the completely opaque curtain...

"I promise, hand on heart, and on pain of death, that I will not, under any circumstances, look."

I turned around and sat in the corner, closing my eyes and placing my hands over my face for good measure. I heard Bella hesitating still, I wasn't surprised but I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable. Knowing that that was an impossibility, I settled for making her as least uncomfortable as I possibly could.

"Do you want to blind fold me?" She giggled, "no seriously, I don't mind."

"Really? You honestly wouldn't mind sitting here blindfolded in the bathroom of a girl you only met yesterday... while she has a shower?" she asked sceptically.

"Okay, when you put it like that it sounds creepy, but I assure you my intentions are purely honourable."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, and to prove it to you I'll sit here blindfolded _and_ with my hands tied behind my back so you can be sure I wont peek," okay, Edward _what _did you just say there?

"How very honourable of you, Edward. As a reward for your honour, you shall get a choice, do you want your hands tied first, or do you want to be blindfolded first?"

I decided on my hands, for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off her. It wasn't like I didn't trust her, I did, but I just didn't really want to be blindfolded just yet.

"Hands first please!" I said with playful enthusiasm.

"Okay..." she looked around for something to use, and then her face lit up with an idea and she took off the belt to her dressing gown.

I held my hands behind me obediently while she tied me up securely, testing the knot to make sure I couldn't escape. I chuckled a little at her and she poked me in the back. She then got up to look for something to blindfold me with. I was still sat cross-legged on the floor as I watched her look round the bathroom, she eventually came back to me with an apologetic expression on her face and carrying a hand-towel.

"I know its an bit big and lumpy but it's the only thing I could find," she said, apologies as evident in her voice as they were on her face.

I merely chuckled at her and rolled my eyes after she hesitantly kneeled down right behind me. A second later the towel came over my eyes, plunging me into heated, steamy darkness. I could feel her fingers trailing on my skin and also the steam heating the room up. I was burning here.

Bella struggled with the awkward towel to tie it at the back of my head, it made my scalp tingle. She pulled the knot tight but it immediately came undone again and we both fell into quiet laughter again.

"Okay, okay I'm sorry, I'll try again," she tried again with the same result then on the third try, managed to secure it with a hair tie.

How did I get myself into this?

I heard the soft thud of her pyjamas hitting the floor, and blushed desperately trying to halt my imagination before it could even consider running wild. I heard the timbre of the shower change and I knew she was behind the _opaque_ curtain.

She showered quickly and soon I heard the water being turned off. I heard Bella wrap a towel around herself, then her soft footsteps coming towards me. I felt Bella tug gently at the hair tie securing to towel around my eyes and then it fell away and I could see. Then I felt her dainty fingers pulling at the knot as she tried to undo it one-handed.

"Well, that was... interesting," I said while she pulled at the dressing-gown belt around my hands. Bella only giggled.

The belt fell away from my hands and I pulled them in front of me stretching my wrists out like they did in prison films, "Freedom!" I quietly shouted jokingly.

She lightly smacked the back of my head. I turned to smirk at her, but instead, I got a face-ful of wet hair. It smelt wonderful, I never knew strawberries could be so... _tempting._ I inhaled deeply before she backed away blushing and picking up her pyjamas.

"Okay, lets go!" she hissed at me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5 – avoiding Leah**

**Edward's pov**

She turned and went out the door reluctantly, as if she was going to stand and face a firing squad. I felt sorry for her, Alice was like that only more unstoppable and high pitched, Alice...

I felt sadness, anger and betrayal converge in my chest, squeezing it tight, squeezing all the air out of my lungs, squeezing my heart so it had no room to beat... It hurt.

Trying to distract myself, I suddenly remembered that I left my phone downstairs, so I decided to retrieve it before anyone other than Bella found it and started asking her awkward questions. I had just picked up my phone when I heard the front door being opened, _again!_

I looked around the room desperately, trying to find somewhere to hide in a room that was unnaturally devoid of nooks and crannies. I settled for between the end of the sofa and the wall, I would have crawled into the gap behind the sofa... if I would fit. Ok, this was a lame hiding place, but there were no alternatives.

I heard the door banging against the wall, and then shuffling footsteps going into the kitchen. I decided to make a break for it, as soon as someone entered the living room, they would be sure to inadvertently find me within minutes... or seconds.

I heard the clanging of glass, whoever had come home was pouring themselves a drink, possibly orange juice. They would probably have their back to the door. I crept up to the side of the door and, without risking a peek round the door-frame to check if they were looking, I ran for the stairs. I didn't look into the kitchen, making eye contact would only make me look more suspicious.

I had my foot on the third step when I heard someone in the hall behind me. I cringed, I obviously hadn't been as sly as I hoped.

**Bella's pov**

"Okay, lets go!" I hissed.

I unlocked the bathroom door and poked my head through the gap, looking if there was any signs of someone out there. I reached behind and grabbed his wrist ready to drag him to my bedroom and basically cram him through the door, _again. _

If the results of our little water fight in the kitchen had looked bad, this looked about a hundred times worse. I still couldn't believe I had actually taken a shower while someone else was in the same room, I mean I was _naked_ in the bathroom with a _boy! _At least this time there was a window to escape from.

We made it to my bedroom and I went straight to my window, I looked out and... "Oh _crap!"_

"What?" Edward asked then came to look out the window with me.

"No!" I hissed and pushed him back, "they might see you!"

"That's very unlikely," but my expression stopped him testing that theory.

I glanced out the window, at the busy street below, biting my lip and heard him sigh. I turned back to him to tell him to turn around but he was already facing the wall.

"Thanks, " I muttered and quickly got dressed.

I stood awkwardly trying to put my underwear on while still keeping the towel wrapped around me – it involved a little to much hopping and trying to grab the towel before it slipped off me completely, I wouldn't advise it. I felt a little more secure when I had my underwear on and then just dressed as quickly as I could in the first things my hands touched.

"Okay, you can turn around now," I said once I was decent.

He stood up and obeyed.

"Are you ok to go unnoticed for a bit while I'm tortured? I think its only me and Leah home so it should be safe for you to enter the rest of the house, just hide in my wardrobe or somewhere if someone comes," I instructed.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied saluting me.

I rolled my eyes and left him to enter Leah's torture chamber. I entered timidly aware that – according to Leah – I had taken forever in the shower. As soon I had gotten through the door, she ran over to me fussing already. Let the torture commence...

"Oh, no! You cant wear that!"

"Why not?" I asked defensively, what was wrong with my jeans and my top?

"Because its boring! You'll never impress any guy wearing that!"

"Newsflash, I'm not trying to impress anyone! Especially since it'll be over before I know it."

"Yeah but you should! I was going to introduce you to someone today! I don't think you know them but you'd love them!"

"Oh _that's_ going to be a great relationship there, Leah. I have to go back in only three days now anyway." I finished sadly.

Leah didn't notice, she was busy clattering around in the bottom of my wardrobe, trying to find her hair dryer and straighteners. After a few moments she straightened up and turned to face me with an appliance in each hand. She looked like an evil scientist.

"Curly or straight?" she asked me with a menacing gleam in her eye.

"Erm..."

"Curly," she answered for me.

I sighed and sat down, trying to find my happy place. Leah stayed silent while doing my hair and I almost laughed at the look of pure concentration on her face. I stared at the pink wall in front of me, wishing that the pink could somehow magically transform into an interesting colour. After Leah had finished my hair she begged me to straighten hers, she wanted it ruler straight. But apparently I was good at that. Now that Leah wasn't concentrating on anything she was gushing about some guy that she fancied and she thought fancied her back. It was difficult to tell since they'd never even spoken to each other.

"So, who are you setting me up with, then? What's his name? What's he like?" it was weird knowing I would be pushed into a possibly, _probably, _romantic situation with some one I didn't know. It wasn't just weird, I didn't like the idea at all.

"That would be cheating if I told you!"

"Please Leah! At least just tell me his name!"

"Ok, I'll tell you... after you let me dress you for the _date!"_

"How do I know you'll tell me afterwards?"

"You can always change," I knew she was telling the truth now, she would never let me change out of an outfit she had put together for me.

"Fair enough."

I finished straightening her hair, apart form the bits around her face – I was petrified of burning her – then she fussed for an insane amount of time over what I should wear. However, she finally managed to pick out an outfit that lived up to her almost impossible standards.

I went to go change quickly then to find Edward and sneak him out. I crept downstairs quietly, not sure why I was avoiding being loud, I guessed it fit with whole sneaking around thingy. I swore to myself never to let myself get into a situation remotely similar to this ever again. I turned into the living room and saw Seth and Edward sat on the sofa chatting like they were old friends. I guess Edward just made friends easily, or he could have known Seth from school, but Seth was two years younger than us – I knew Edward was in the same year because Jessica was ecstatic that she sat next to him in English.

Edward and Seth both heard my entrance and turned to look at me. Seth jumped up immediately looking worried, while Edward's eyes just widened in alarm over the back of the sofa.

"Leah's not behind you is she?" he whispered in panic.

"No, she's still obsessing over clothes."

I laughed at the relief washing over his face. His shoulders slumped, and his knees bent and he collapsed on the sofa in relief.

"Quit being a drama queen."

**Back to Edward's pov**

Me and Seth were sat on the sofa. He was a nice guy and seemed friendly enough, he wasn't fazed at all by the fact that I had slept over here – I told him I had slept on the sofa, leaving out the fact that Bella had slept on top of me... and the shower incident – and he laughed when I told him of mine and Bella's water fight in the kitchen.

He also laughed when I told him that the pyjamas I was wearing were his, it was true, like Bella had predicted, that he hadn't noticed that he had gained some brand new pyjamas. He even checked his wardrobe for some new clothes I could wear for today, it turned out that his mum had gone through his wardrobe sorting everything out and in the process half of his wardrobe had magically transformed in something new.

I was a little taller and broader than him, but, like a typical mother, his mum had brought all his clothes with growing room. So I sat there, comfortably in clothes that were completely new and hadn't been worn, that also fit me, talking to Seth about random stuff. I think most of it was complaining about our sisters. Leah and Alice were so alike, and Seth made me so relaxed that I forgot about Alice being... I still couldn't even _think_ it.

We both heard someone walking through the door behind us and we both snapped our heads round to see who it was, we were both dead meat if it was Leah.

Seth lurched off the sofa and started mumbling something and, although I was currently fearing life, I couldn't help but notice how Bella looked. I felt my eyes widen as I took in the deep blue top she was wearing, it was made of such delicate material and, like her hair – which was now in soft ringlets – it flowed with her movements. Short, dainty sleeves covered her shoulders, the top fitted snugly around her... chest area, and flowed out elegantly just above her natural waist. Underneath, there was a black vest-top, the material was translucent. She also had on some tight jeans, revealing every curve of her leg. There was an ethereal quality in the way her top floated around her, yet still showing her slim silhouette, making her look like some heathen water goddess.

I heard her speak then, "No, she's still obsessing over clothes."

It was strange, her voice still sounded the same, but it was like I was hearing it differently. I was glad the back of the sofa was covering up the fact that my jaw was now on my lap. I noticed this and quickly shut it. Ok, this was new.

I registered that Seth was now laying awkwardly on the sofa, "Quit being a drama queen," she told him sternly.

Bella's eyes flickered to me, "Are you sure its safe for you to stay much longer in this house with Leah around? Seth may be friendly but Leah is his opposite!"

"Ok, I guess I better be going then," I picked up the carrier bag with my dirty clothes and the pyjamas I wore inside.

Before I could really work out what was going on me and a worried Seth were being hurriedly ushered out the door by a panicked Bella. The door slammed shut and me and Seth stood there looking at each other for a few minutes. Then I heard voices floating through the door.

"Ok, so now I'm dressed ridiculously, you have to tell me who your setting me up with," Bella demanded annoyed.

"Ok ok, it's Mike, Mike Newton," Leah replied exasperated.

"What? Eww, he's so creepy! I swear he stalks me on facebook!" I was starting to get really irritated at mike already.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6 – date from hell**

OK, I really, really, _really_ did _not_ want to do this! Mike was a perv, but Leah wouldn't listen to me. She was convinced she was a brilliant matchmaker and that we were the perfect match. She eventually admitted – after much whining and pestering and pleading – that she didn't know him personally, just that she'd overheard he was friends with me on facebook and that he really liked me

"Leah! You cant judge a character based on just that!" I practically screamed at her.

"But I already promised him a date with you! He was so excited, all cute like a little puppy!" she protested.

"And you think being like a puppy is good?" I asked her disbelievingly, then I turned sceptical, quirking an eyebrow and crossing my arms.

"Isn't it?" she was getting a little insecure now, it was horrible to see her squirm, but now, thanks to her, I would be squirming all day!

"No," I said with less severity than before.

"Oh," she looked contrite, but it was too late now, mike was already walking towards us with a cheesy grin plastered all over his face.

Mike was disgusting, he always sat too close, always looked at my chest, called me _fit_ and _hot._ It made me uncomfortable and I wished he would stop, who cares if he looks like a puppy! Curse Leah for doing this to me! Ever since he had joined me and Leah he was drooling over me – in an _extremely_ bad way. He had been steadily driving crazy for the last three hours.

I saw Edward and Seth near the edge of the park, oh thank bloody god! I ran over to them smiling and waving and calling them. It was only six in the afternoon, I knew mike wasn't planning to leave me until nine, surely after a _romantic_ dinner, I wasn't sure I would survive that with my sanity intact, I was at the end of my tether already!

I hugged them both tightly when I reached them and whispered "save me please!"

I pulled back to find them both smirking at me, "I'm not sure, I value my life too much to cross Leah like that," replied Seth.

"Leah wont bother you I promise!" I bargained desperately.

"Mike's coming," Edward warned quietly.

I turned to face him, trying to keep a frown off my face. Oh god, if I was left alone with him for another second I thought I would explode! Self destruction was a lot better than listening to him.

"Hey Mike," I said lamely.

"Hey," he replied and looked questioningly at Edward and Seth.

"Oh, this is Edward and this is Seth," I introduced them with the bare minimum of words.

Edward stepped bravely forward and shook Mike's hand, he was friendly enough but Mike glowered at him. Edward lost his smile and shrugged, he wasn't too bothered, and stepped back to stand next to me. I would have to find some way of repaying him later. Seth followed Edward's lead and shook hands with mike as well, but Seth frowned as Mike looked down on him. Seth was a little sensitive about being younger than everyone else and he started bristling. I tried to think of a way to interrupt before something bad happened.

"Ok, who else is thirsty?" I asked.

"Yeah lets go get some coke," Edward suggested also seeing the potential for a fight.

"And sweets!" Seth interjected grinning, it looked like everyone was happy, except Mike – but I wasn't planning on making Mike _happy._

At the shop I saw Leah, Kim and Emily. I ran over to them while Seth tried to hide himself and Edward behind the end of the isle, but it was too late. Leah turned to me apprehensively and asked how it was going, I told her that Mike's eyes were to heavy for him to lift to the appropriate height for polite conversation, and that I might explode if I had to be alone with him for another second.

I had to shut up then because Mike joined us with Edward and Seth. However Leah got a demonstration of the weight of Mike's eyes for herself. She agreed it was disgusting and said she was sorry for setting me up and she should have listened to me about him.

Leah decided it would be safer not to leave me alone with the creep. She looked seriously worried I would be raped or something. So, after buying enough bottles of coke for everyone to share – except for Mike – and some food, we brought lots of sweets and sandwiches to share – again the girls insisted that Mike keep his sandwich to himself, we were an odd number anyway, so _someone _had to be left out.

Somehow, Kim and Emily persuaded Leah to share with Seth, I wasn't paying attention, but it sounded like the sibling card was played, also Seth and Leah were the only ones who like tuna. This was all going in the background as I handed out money over to the person behind the till. We had almost split the cost evenly – Leah had convinced Mike that since he was having a _whole_ bottle of coke and a _whole _sandwich to himself, it was only fair that he pay more for the extra half. Eventually Mike caved in looking as confused as everyone else was.

We walked out the shop and I was immediately crowded with everyone attacking the bag for their food. I just held the bag out as far as my arms would go while leaning back from the scrum that had formed, I screwed my eyes up and cringed back, it was a reflex reaction. Finally, my friends dissipated, but before I could open my eyes again,I felt a final pair of hands dip in the bag a moment after the scrum split up. I held my eyes shut a second longer then tentatively opened them again, ready for another onslaught... that didn't come.

I blinked my eyes open then looked in the bag. I blinked again. The bag was completely and utterly empty, I tried weighing the bag in my hands and closely examining the bottom of the bag, but no food miraculously appeared... from the bag anyway.

I heard a soft, musical chuckle and looked up to Edward who was half heartedly holding out my half of the sandwich to me. I glanced at the sandwich again, we had the BLT, good. I took the sandwich off him – well, I tried to take the sandwich off him, but I got a shock _again_, this time it was stronger and made my whole arm spasm, resulting in the sandwich landing on the floor.

Bugger. I sighed and stupidly looked in the bag again for any leftover sweets, already forgetting that there were none. I felt the disappointment pull my face into a frown, I would _not_ be sharing with Mike. In fact I planned to have as little to do with Mike as I could for as long as I lived. A roughly ripped quarter of a sandwich made its way into my field of vision accompanied my a pale hand. I found myself staring at said hand, it was big, but not too big or fat, it had long fingers, not spidery but still masculine...

"Come on, just take the sandwich Bella, we've got enough food to feed an army here, but you cant just have sweets, you'll be hungry again in no time," I heard that musical voice again...

"Thank you," I sounded dazed, I was dazed.

I took the sandwich from the oh so beautiful hand, which dropped as soon as I had my food. Still staring at the place the hand had been, I began to nibble on the sandwich. It was good, the bacon was crispy on the edge but not all the way through – I didn't know how people could stand their bacon like that, it tasted so burnt – and there was a decent amount of it, as well as the lettuce and the tomato, I noticed a distinct lack of mayonnaise and smiled, this may be the perfect BLT. It was warm as well, I felt the warmth in my stomach spreading everywhere. Then I was confused, it didn't feel warm in my fingers... maybe my hands were just too warm to notice.

We had a fun time and at about half seven we met up with Angela, Lauren and Jessica. Lauren hated me for some reason, I really didn't know her well enough to make a judgement so I avoided her, I knew she bitched about me behind my back, but I didn't want a fight. Jess was alright, I had no real problem with her, she was just one of those marginally irritating people who never shut up and never knew when it was none of their business. Angela was one of my best friends, apart from Leah.

Somehow, at ten o'clock that night, we all ended up scattered on the living room floor in sleeping bags. We'd had a few card games, which me and Leah won most of, Mike claimed we were cheating, but he was a sore looser, he sulked the rest of the night away while everyone else had fun. We watched a film and this time, it was decided that we were watching the time traveller's wife. The majority of girls overruled the rest of us voting for shooter, I hadn't seen that film in _ages!_

Leah, Kim, Lauren and Jess claimed the sofa and Angela and Emily took the two recliners. That left me, Edward Seth and Mike on the floor. Mike insisted on sitting next to me, he sat so close our arms were touching, I automatically scooted over in the other direction, right into Edward. I looked up at him smirking and he grinned down at me.

Edwards eyes flickered over my head to Mike, "do you need saving again?" he whispered in my ear, I got shivers down my spine, I was suddenly cold, you could see the goose bumps all over me.

"Yes please," I whispered back.

It was strange how I felt so comfortable around him. It was also strange how everyone – except Mike but he doesn't count – instantly became friends with him. He seemed to fit so well, and effortlessly into the group – well, the group of friends present anyway. There was just something about him that invited people in, that made people immediately love him.

This should have felt strange, I should have been uncomfortable. Instead, I couldn't stop the small smile from creeping stealthily onto my face in the darkness as Edward wrapped his arm around me. The first bit in the film was kinda sad, Jessica cried a little at that bit, oh dear, we were only a few minutes in!

Sometimes Leah called me a robot because I never cried in films. Not at the end of titanic, never. But I could feel the tears coming now, as we watched the last few minutes.

"Aww, are you crying?" Edward cooed into my ear.

"You tell anyone, especially Leah, and I'll shoot you," I threatened darkly, trying to wipe my tears away, at least I wasn't sobbing like the whole sofa was.

Then I froze as I realised what I was using to dry my eyes, "woops, sorry," I said as I quickly let go of Edward's top, it was the same top he had on last night, he had been carrying that bag around all day.

I bit my lip and faced the TV, but I could feel myself blushing deeply as Edward only chuckled, again. Angela reached over the arm of the chair and turned the TV off, and chatter picked up quickly once we were submerged in the blackness. With so many people here we soon split off into our own, private conversations.

I think the sofa crowd talked about how wonderful and sad the film was, Emily and Angela talked about going to the beach tomorrow, and me Edward and Seth... we talked about awkward situations to arrive naked in. We decided the winner was a child's birthday party, with all the mothers there.

We all cringed – everyone on the room that is, even the sofa crowd and the armchair people – when Mike suggested the most awkward place to appear naked was in the same room as where your girlfriend was having an affair. After Mike's outburst the room became silent, the difference was a huge contrast making things more awkward. But Mike didn't notice, he just continued to stare intently at me.

"So..." Leah got the conversation going again, and I was grateful.

"Bella," Mike said, almost urgently, in my ear, I shuddered automatically at his proximity.

"Mike, I'm sorry, I just don't think it would work out between us... romantically," I said apologetically, and I did kinda feel guilty for letting him down so harshly... with Edward's arm still slung casually over my shoulder while Edward talked to Seth.

"Why? I know you like me, I can see it when you get all nervous and that around me, you don't want to be too close in case you cant restrain yourself. I have that effect on women, but Bella, I wont reject you, you have nothing to fear," he moved in then going for a kiss.

I leaned back into Edward and slapped him. We had everyone's attention again. I hadn't planned on slapping him, but he made it impossible not to!

"Mike, I got _uncomfortable_ around you, because you couldn't take your eyes off my chest. I didn't want to get too close to you because I thought you would get the wrong idea and start groping me or something, and because your kinda creepy with all the panting."

Mike looked furious, outraged, mad. He curled his fists at his sides, he shifted his weight slightly, as if to get a better stance for something... Edward was suddenly gripping Mike's fist, two inches in front of my face. I could see the tendons stand out on his arm, he was muscular, not ripped but I didn't go for the fake body-builder look that seemed to be so popular. But still, the difference between Edward and Mike made Edward look like a body-builder, like superman.

"I think you should leave now," Seth hissed while Edward just glared at him.

Mike made no move to leave, so Edward and Seth pulled him onto his feet. Suddenly everyone was on their feet too, helping shove Mike out the door. I was in shock, I didn't notice Angela sat next to me until I heard the door shut.

I turned to her, "Oh, thank god he's gone!" I cried in relief and started laughing.

Angela joined in and the tension disappeared, even when the others came back looking pissed off. We went to sleep soon after that.

* * *

**A/N – **OK, soz Mike fans!! - but yay Edward fans!!!!!!!!!

Leah, being a little bit clueless there... but maybe not so much Emily and Kim! Hmmm...


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7 – the worst Friday ever **

I was asleep, but I was on the verge of waking up. However, it was taking a long time, I was just so warm and comfortable, I wanted to lie here forever. Then my pillow moved _again!_

I opened my eyes and peeked up at Edward's sleeping face like I did yesterday morning. Once again I noticed how peaceful he looked, not only did he look so peaceful, but he just looked so gorgeous as well. Wait, I think I was crushing on him. Probably explains why I ended up on his chest in the night.

Bugger! I quickly sat up and looked around to see if anyone else saw. Thankfully everyone was still asleep. I found my eyes being drawn back to Edward's face. Oh yes, I was definitely crushing on him.

My eyes searched his face, noticing everything about him, noticing his perfectly straight nose, his high cheekbones, his full lips, I noticed how his eyebrows were a slightly darker shade of bronze to his hair, his messy sex hair...

It looked so soft, I wanted to run my fingers through it. That wasn't all I wanted to do either, but I decided to get up. I padded into the kitchen, gasping when I got to the cold kitchen tiles without slippers on. I quickly hopped onto the part of the floor with the hot water pipe running under it.

I made myself some toast, and was just about to pick up a triangle when it suddenly disappeared. I turned round annoyed – I was looking forward to my toast and was still a little groggy – to face Leah with my toast, absently texting someone.

I sighed irritated and finished the rest of my toast. I had been planning to daydream a little as I ate, let my brain wake up slowly, but I didn't trust Leah enough, so I watched her like a hawk. I did love Leah, in a sisterly way, and I knew she had good intentions, but I wouldn't trust her with much.

I put my plate in the dishwasher – a luxury I didn't have in phoenix – and stared out the window.

"Bella?" Leah asked.

"Yeah," I hadn't fully awoken from my trance yet, my eyes were glued to the tree I had been staring at for the last few minutes.

"Ok, I know that the whole thing with Mike was a complete disaster, and I wanted to make it up to you. So... I got you a date with one of Seth's friends! He's only one year younger though so it wont be creepy, but he's so buff! He could totally pass as the same year as us!" she gushed.

I sighed, "Leah... I don't think that's a good idea."

"I promise he's nothing like Mike!" she pleaded desperately.

"Wouldn't that be a little weird for Seth though?" your friend going out with your stepsister? That would be a little weird wouldn't it?

"Who cares?"

"You've already told hi I'm going out with him haven't you?" she was so transparent sometimes.

"7 o'clock at _la bella italia _and he's bringing you home by nine," she sounded proud.

I, on the other hand, was horrified! Completely freaking out! "What! _La bella italia_? Why Leah? Why must you do this to me? I've only got two stinking days left! And I hate posh restaurants! I hate blind dates! I'd rather get to know someone first before going out! You know what happened with Mike!"

"I told you Jacob is nothing like Mike!" she said exasperated, "and _la bella italia_ is a good restaurant!"

"That's not the point!" I hissed.

"Well, tough, cause you're going, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming," her voice had a ring of finality in it and my space for argument was suddenly sucked away.

"Go take a long walk off a short pier," I muttered and made my way grumpily back into the living room.

I tried to sit with a thud on my makeshift bed, but Edward had rolled over and was now kind of taking up both my sheets and his. I stared at him and felt my face relax in a second, I was suddenly calm again.

Edward stirred, and I was afraid I had woken him, I had been stood there staring at him for god knows how long. I took a step back hoping he would go back to sleep, I put my hands behind my back, I know I looked guilty but I felt bad for waking him up.

He rolled over and blinked his eyes open, "I didn't wake you up did I?" I whispered anxiously.

He looked at me, he hadn't noticed me stood here earlier, so I guess that was a good sign. He blinked a few more times before he answered, "No, of course not, don't worry about it its fine."

I smiled in relief, "good."

My dad came downstairs at ten, he asked to speak to me upstairs, and I could tell what this was about.

"Bella, I'm sure you're aware that your mum called the day before yesterday," he gave me a piercing look , he knew I ran out of the house crying because I had heard them, there was no point in denying it, so I simply nodded.

"Well, she and Phill have already booked a your flight home, its on Sunday at 10 am. I'm not going to force the issue if you don't want me to, Bella," he continued softly, of course I wanted to stay here longer! But my mum was having a baby, she needed me, the baby needed me... and staying here longer would just make Phill that much worse. I was torn.

"No, I'm fine," I shook my head, I saw disappointment flash in my dads eyes, "I'll be on facebook and Skype everyday!" I promised as if that could make up for going home a week early.

He seemed appeased though, but I could tell he was still disappointed, but at the same time I just couldn't abandon mum! I was surprised at the strength of the grief and sadness that engulfed me, when I thought of leaving. I had only been here a few days and now I was going back on Sunday already. I hugged my dad then went back downstairs.

Everyone was awake now, they were laughing and making plans for the day, some of it sounded quite good, but I wasn't in the mood. This was officially the worst Friday ever! I quickly turned away from the living room and went to sit on the step by the back door. I saw Ace digging around in the back of the garden, it was quite funny to watch and it cheered me up. Hopefully my new sibling would be as comforting.

I felt someone settle on the step next to me... and by the way my body both burned and shivered, I knew it was Edward.

"You look cold," he stated.

"I'm warmer now you're here," damn me and my big mouth!

I peeked at him through my eyelashes to see if he was completely freaked out. He didn't need to hear that despite how truthful it was. I could feel my cheeks flushing, why oh why could the earth not swallow me at this moment?

He chuckled, completely relaxed, as if that wasn't weird at all, "want some more body heat? I've got plenty to spare," he put his arm around my shoulders again.

I did heat up at his touch, it felt like I was on fire... I doubted _that_ was the product of just body heat. Again we sat in comfortable silence, I was naturally quiet, and although I liked to laugh along with my friends, I liked sitting quietly just as much, even more with Edward. Cue blush... I would miss him so much.

I sighed, "I have to go back on Sunday, its only the day after tomorrow!" I could hear the tears in my voice, I swear Edward just made me feel everything in the extreme, like I wasn't in control of myself when he was around.

"Wow, that's really soon..." he sounded almost as depressed as I was, "I know I only met you two days ago... but I'll miss you – not in a creepy stalker way."

I laughed, "I'll miss you too – not in a creepy stalker way," correction - definitely in a creepy stalker way.

"Well, we have the rest of this day, and tomorrow, we should make the most of it."

"What should we do?" I asked not caring as long as I was with Edward, oh yes I would definitely be creepy and stalkerish when I went back to phoenix.

"I have no idea, what do you feel like doing?"

"nothing special, I just want to hang out and enjoy decent company."

"You say that like its a rare thing," Edward said concerned.

I shrugged, "all my best friends are here, so I usually talk to them on facebook or Skype or the good old fashioned telephone – well actually mobiles aren't that old fashioned, They're good though," I could tell I was rambling and quickly shut myself up.

"I don't have facebook," he said disappointed, "however I do have a mobile and Skype."

"Good, then we can stay in touch," I smiled brightly, ecstatic at the thought.

We both grinned at each other, maybe it wouldn't be _that_ bad if I still got to talk to Edward when I was away. I heard someone approaching and prayed to god it wasn't Leah. Luckily it was Kim, she looked at us, grinned, then walked off.

I looked at Edward nonplussed, "do you have any idea what that was about? Because if you do then please feel free to enlighten me."

"I have no idea," Edward replied, sounding as confused as me.

After a few more minutes I got up to get dressed for the day, the I remembered Edward, "are you alright for clothes for today? You've been staying here for the last two nights..." I trailed off, would this be a painful subject to bring up? I thought I should steer clear anyway.

"I'm cool, Seth's clothes from yesterday aren't really that dirty, I could get another wear out of them," he grinned.

"What are you going to do tonight? You cant stay here forever Edward, not that I'm kicking you out or anything, but I don't think my dad would appreciate you living here... or Leah for that matter," I cringed at her reaction to Edward living here.

He sighed, I could see pain and sadness in his eyes, once again I found myself sitting down trying to comfort him, "I probably should go back today..." he groaned and put his head in his hands.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I asked timidly, he looked like he needed the moral support but what if this was something private?

He turned his head – still resting in his palms – to look at me, he was torn, I could almost see the battle raging in his head through his eyes. He closed his eyes and turned his face back towards the ground.

"I do, I want you to come with me Bella... I'm just not sure if you should," I could still hear the conflict in his voice.

"I understand Edward, if it helps, I can accompany you there but not come inside when you want to talk to your family?" I was uncertain, torn again between wanting to be with him all day and wanting to give him privacy with his family, between wanting to be there for him and respecting his wishes.

Edward sat up and turned to me almost dripping with gratitude, "Thanks Bella.. for understanding... and basically everything in the last 48-ish hours."

I grinned, "no problem," then we hugged.

It was the sweetest, kindest, warmest... _best _hug in the world and I never wanted it to end.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8 – disbelief **

**Bella's pov**

I must say, Seth's shirt suited him really well. It was grey – I know, interesting colour, right? But bear with me here – it pulled taught over his surprisingly well developed chest. Surprising, because so far, he wasn't all that sporty. Even though he was surprisingly muscular, he was still lean, I could see the tendons and the hard muscles under his rolled up shirt sleeves, again I couldn't help making the superman comparison like I did last night when he saved me from a broken nose.

We turned the corner, around the hedge and he stiffened. I squeezed his hand and stepped in front of him when he didn't respond. He looked pained, and terrified. I was suddenly overcome with an over-protectiveness that I hadn't known I had possessed. He really needed to sort whatever this was out.

"Edward," I put my hands on his shoulders and waited for him to look at me, "your family, whoever they are, whatever they've done, they managed to bring you up for... a number of years-"

"Twelve," he interjected with a small smile, his whole face brightened when he smiled and I found myself staring at his lips just a little to long... and a little too intensely.

"Twelve years, then, and they did a pretty good job too," I finished slightly embarrassed, he was my friend it automatically follows that I approve of him and how he was raised right? So why did I blush?

Luckily Edward didn't notice, he was a shade embarrassed as well, but he was mostly thoughtful as he stared down the three mile driveway that curved, hiding the house from view, "thank you."

"I'll wait here," I told him as I sat down, he nodded.

He smiled at me, took a deep breath and set off down the drive. I watched his retreating back and sighed. Wait where was that coming from? I _sighed_? Oh dear Bella. But I couldn't tear my eyes away from him, I would be leaving him tomorrow, and that thought had me depressed.

Edward was nearly out of my sight, when I saw a woman hesitantly walk up to him and embrace him in a hug, there was another man there too, and a girl. They were all exceptionally pale, and technically very beautiful, but their beauty didn't appeal to me the same way Edward's did. Wait Edward's _beauty appealed_ to me? Where the hell was I getting this crap from? I watched as Edward's greeting party started to look confused, oh my god, he wasn't telling them about the shower incident was he? No, I was confident he wasn't because first, he wasn't like that, and second, he was terrified of them a minute ago, I could still see the tension in his shoulders as he stood by them, not looking them directly in the eye. Damn, I wished I could do something, just be there to comfort him even.

Then the small one turned to look at me, she looked the extreme of shocked, frustrated and horrified. She turned quickly back to the others and spoke to them, both Edward's parents frowned and Edward stubbornly crossed his arms. I felt myself frown too, though more out of confusion, was he not allowed to have friends? Was he not allowed to show people his house? Oh, they probably thought Edward had told me their secret. Well, he hadn't, and they should give him some more credit, I had no clue what so ever as to what they were.

They turned and bustled Edward out of sight and towards the house, my frown deepened. I caught one apologetic glance from Edward before he was hidden by the trees, that glance held no fear – maybe some apprehension, but not enough to have me worried, so I relaxed against the tree and started playing games on my ipod.

**Edward's pov**

"So, you only just decided to come back then?" her tone was forced, yet not hostile... more nervous?

"No, I'd been planning to do this since last night actually," I said curtly not looking at her, I didn't like the way she always made assumptions, even though she was always right, I still didn't like it too much.

"Really? But I didn't see, I looked all the time and I still didn't see!" she said frustrated.

"That's because I only got to the end of the drive just now?" I said confused.

Alice didn't seem to notice me and went to sit down on the sofa opposite mine. She sat next to Carlisle and Esme who were studying me with concerned and nervous eyes, I wished Bella was with me.

Carlisle opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, I wasn't in the mood to be polite, "Why? Why did you lie to me all these years!?" I demanded angrily.

"It was for your own protection," Esme said in a motherly tone.

"Don't give me that crap, why should I believe you?"

"It's true," Carlisle said, "there are people out there who would kill you if they knew that you knew."

I leaned back and crossed my arms, I didn't know what to say to that, or to believe them, but I found myself believing them anyway, it was like they were so desperate to earn my trust back they just weren't going to lie any more, about anything. The silence descended again, loaded with questions and accusations. It hung there for a few minutes.

"So... who was that girl who came with you?" Alice broke the silence again.

I shrugged, "A friend..." I didn't have to tell them, "where's everyone else?" I was curious but I also wanted to shift the conversation off me.

"They're out... hunting," Esme said warily.

"Animals," I said, they could hear the scepticism in my voice, it wasn't very much – trusting your family is a hard habit to break – but it was there.

"Yes, its the animal blood that turns our eyes golden," Carlisle explained.

I quirked my brow, animal blood made golden eyes?

"Yes, human blood would turn our eyes red, and when we're... thirsty, they're black," Carlisle explained eagerly now that I was listening, "of course we have cold, hard, pale skin, we cant go out in sunlight, and we don't eat human food."

The checklist for spotting vampires, "What else? What's it like being a vampire?" I asked grudgingly hating that I was morbidly curious, it wasn't the same as in Hollywood.

"Well, there's the super-speed and super-strength and heightened senses, we're virtually indestructible – only fire can kill us," I listened as Carlisle explained in detail what it was to be a vampire, "of course the thirst is always burning in the back of our throats, worse when we're thirsty, we don't sleep, and some of us have extra talents..."

"I can see the future!" Alice interjected.

"What? That's impossible," I scoffed. Fine, if they were going to lie to me than I might as well have not bothered coming back.

I got up and walked out again, aware that they were perfectly capable of stopping me and holding me prisoner. But they didn't.

Everything they said was impossible, and it just kept getting more ridiculous, they didn't even get the facts right, vampires could be killed by wooden steaks and garlic, and they couldn't go out in the day, and I had seen... _them_ outside in the daytime, they even went to school with me! Hell, Carlisle was even the most religious man I had ever met. Not the strict, stuffy, you-must-go-to-church-every-sunday type man, but the type who believes utterly in heaven and hell, and god. And a cross hadn't burned him yet.

I stalked down the drive angrily, why were they telling me these things? It made no sense! Maybe they were trying to destroy my credibility or something, feeding me these ridiculous stories so that I will sound even more insane and no one will believe me. Hell, no one would believe me even if I just said they were vampires – in the traditional sense – they didn't need to go to all that trouble! I mean, who the hell does that? I wasn't planning on telling anyone but now they were just taking the piss. They might as well tell me pigs fly! Alice seeing the future! Like that's ever going to happen, Jasper might as well control emotions and Carlisle might as well be five hundred years old! Do they really think I'm that gullible?

Then I tripped. I didn't remember seeing anything there, but then again, I didn't remember seeing much of the drive as I walked along it. Dammit, why did I have to be so stupid and trip over a tree root?!

"Wha– oh, Edward are you ok?" I heard the one voice in the world that could make me see sense.

I looked over my shoulder to see her surprised yet concerned face peering back at me. Her warm chocolate eyes were wide and her lips parted slightly, my eyes lingered on her lips too long, she was an angel, literally. I couldn't resist her even if I wanted to.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said as I rolled onto my back and sat up next to her.

"I'm guessing it didn't go that well then."

"Nope," I popped the "p", I still sounded bleak though.

"It'll be ok Edward, what happened?" she laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped both her arms around mine, hugging it to her chest as she waited for my answer.

"They lied to me, they told me all these ridiculous stories and thought that I would be taken in."

I could feel myself getting angry again, but I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, revelling in the sensation shooting through my arm where Bella was hugging it. Her warmth flooded me, washing all the tension away from my muscles. Then she laid her head against my shoulder and all the calm was lost as the muscles twisted in my stomach, not unpleasantly. I was hyper aware of each point of contact between our bodies, I noticed how small her hand was, wrapped around my elbow, I noticed how dainty her fingers were as the other hand played absently with my fingers. We both stared at our intertwined hands, was she enjoying this as much as I was?

"How do you know they were lying?" she asked softly.

"Because what they were saying was physically impossible," I replied shortly.

I closed my eyes, blocking out the forest, trying to control my anger. My hands balled into fists at my sides, the future was always changing, impossible to predict, what Alice said was impossible. I felt a warm hand on my cheek, my eyes flew open in shock, my whole body reacted, jolts of electricity jumped from my cheek to every part of my anatomy, tensing all my muscles in a pleasant shiver.

I let Bella pull my face to look at her, "Edward," she looked fiercely into my eyes, "you're not happy, I get that, but you have to get over this, they're your family, you have to find a way to at least co-exist with them, that is your home you've just run away from for the second time in three days"

I gazed into her deep chocolate eyes and saw nothing but sincerity and truth, and worry, she was worried about me, I sighed, "You're right... I guess."

She smiled softly, "now, we are going to go back to your family and we are going to let them explain fully and then we will make educated, logical, rational judgements, ok?" she said taking on a commanding tone.

"We?" I asked, on one hand I was completely ecstatic that she would come with me, on the other... I wasn't sure if that would work with my family being _vampires._

"Or just you, if you don't want me to come," she muttered, dammit, why did I have to open my big mouth?

I jumped up and offered her both my hands, she grinned up at me and let me pull her up. She was light, a lot lighter than I expected – not that she looked fat or anything, she didn't – I was just used to people having more weight. So, I used more force than needed and she ended up stumbling into my chest. Her sweet strawberry scent surrounded me, this was better than aroma therapy.

We pulled away awkwardly – and for me, at least, reluctantly – after a moment, and decided we should probably be going back to my house. We walked side by side down the driveway, close, but not close enough, I always wanted more when it came to Bella, I was never satisfied although being near her was the best feeling in the world. I was in love with Bella.

Bella looked at me expectantly as we approached the door, I rolled my eyes and sighed. I didn't want to do this, I didn't know what putting it off even for a few seconds would achieve, but I simply couldn't make my arm move. Bella waited patiently next to me as I dithered, held still by the war raging inside my head. Then we heard voices, raised in frustration and worry, drifting through the door.

"I cant see him! Not even if he will still be alive in the next five minutes, his future's just completely disappeared!" the future thing again... but they didn't know we were stood outside the door.

"Lets all just remain calm, he cant get into that much trouble in Forks... Esme, call Jasper, tell him Emmett and Rosalie they should come home, we need to discuss this as a family-"

"No need, they'll be here in five minutes anyway," Alice cut in.

Bella turned to look at me, I could almost read her thoughts as if they were written across her forehead; was this what they told you? The future! What is she talking about? How can anyone see the future? No wonder you didn't believe them.

I gulped and turned back to the suddenly foreboding door. I raised my hand and knocked on the door. We heard three distinct gasps come from inside. Then the door opened and Alice stood blinking at us in shock.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9 – war!**

I couldn't believe what I was hearing through the thick oak door, I looked up at Edward, he looked apprehensive and I truly felt sorry for him but I couldn't stop the thoughts crashing around in my head, was this what they told you? The future! What is she talking about? How can anyone see the future? No wonder you didn't believe them.

Strangely Edward seemed to understand, he gulped audibly and turned back to his front door, raised his hand and knocked. We heard three distinct gasps come from inside. Then the door opened and the short one with spiky hair stood blinking at us in shock.

She was pale, almost sheet white, and everything about her was sharp, her angular features, her spiky hair, her clothes, the stark contrast between her skin tone and hair colour, even her expression as she narrowed her eyes at me, I could practically feel the waves of hostility rolling off her.

Then, in a very clipped tone, she started to speak, now even her voice was sharp, it seemed to pierce the air like the icy cold blade of a knife, "Edward, what is _she _doing here?" her tone was menacing, she was so small, smaller than me, but suddenly I believed she could take me no problem, she could probably take me and all my friends put together without breaking a sweat... she had also been the one talking about seeing the future.

"Alice!" a motherly voice chastised, this voice was more melodious, it matched the heart-shaped face that entered my field of vision, everything about her was soft, the way all her features were slightly curved to flow effortlessly into the rest of her skin, the way her caramel hair complemented her skin tone, almost exactly the same shade as _Alice's,_ "I'm sorry about Alice, I'm Esme, you are...?" she asked politely.

"Bella," I timidly held my hand out for her to shake, she smiled warmly and clasped my hand gently in both of hers.

Her icy touch startled me, it was like she had been purposefully freezing her hands just before she had come to the door. I smiled and tried to subtly manoeuvre my hand from between the ice packs clamped around it.

Esme stepped back quickly and smiled to me, "come in," she invited warmly, gesturing to the huge room behind her.

I stepped into the massive space and scanned the room in awe, _this_ was where Edward lived? I took in the pearly walls, and the huge wall of glass across the other side of the room, filtering in olive green light through the trees. Many things caught my eye, the massive plasma screen on the wall to my left, the exquisite grand piano in the corner next to it, the two cream sofas facing each other in the middle of the room...

The tall man stood offering his hand to me, "I'm Carlisle," everything about him was pale, the skin, the hair, the clothes, the eyes... they all had light butterscotch eyes, what was that about?

"Bella," I replied politely as he let go of my hand.

Alice turned to me again, "would you mind staying here while we talk to Edward in private please?" without waiting for a reply, or even to finish her sentence, she grabbed Edward's arm and started towing him towards the grand staircase on the other side of the room.

Edward hissed when she grabbed his arm, I could see she was grabbing tight, my previous conviction about her being able to take care of herself came rushing back warning me not to interfere, even though she was squeezing Edwards arm as if she were trying to prise it from his body and tugging him roughly up the stairs. With apologies on their faces Carlisle and Esme followed Alice upstairs, I heard the banging of a door, then silence.

I strolled apprehensively around to sit on the sofa nearest to me. I was pleasantly surprised when I sank into smooth cottony softness, I felt like I was floating on feathers as I sat there, it helped calm me and I felt oddly at ease in this fluffy white cloud.

I inhaled deeply, and a wonderful scent assailed my senses, it was the same wonderful scent I had noticed when I first thought Edward was my pillow. I inhaled again and found myself unable to resist the hypnotic power of his aroma. I felt my eyelids droop, I hadn't got much sleep last night, my body automatically waking up at seven as if I was going to school – that was why I hated body clocks.

I was literally on cloud nine, I relaxed into the luxurious, cottony haze surrounding me and let Edward's sweet scent lull me into soft, blissful dreams. They were the kind of dreams with honey and ice cream and chocolate – not like Homer Simpson – and green meadows, endless green meadows filled with warm, bronze sunshine...

I was gently shaken awake by Edward, I blinked my eyes open and my brain immediately shorted out, I was back in the warm green meadows and the bronze sunshine. Then I caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye, and came crashing back down to reality with an almost audible thud.

I blushed bright red as I realised I had just fallen asleep in their house on their sofa, "sorry, I didn't get too much sleep last night," I hurried to explain.

Carlisle and Esme smiled at me, assuring me that it was alright, while Alice stood motionless with her arms crossed in the corner of the room, glaring at me as if I was a dog that wasn't house trained.

"come on, lets go," he murmured to me, I nodded my head and we both headed for the door.

I felt relief wash through me as I felt the cool air hit my face, it refreshed me and I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I couldn't stop the small smile playing at my lips as we strolled leisurely to the end of his drive. When we got to the street I finally turned to him.

"Is everything sorted now? Do you actually have a home to go back to after I leave?" I said.

"Yep," he sighed heavily, he wasn't upset about anything, just not that happy about anything either.

"I'm glad," I said as I stepped in to hug him, god if I slept on cloud nine back in the house, I was in heaven right now.

I grinned into Edward's chest as he wrapped his strong arms around me. I was enveloped in a secure shroud distancing both of us from the rest of the world. I closed my eyes and imagined us lighting up like a candle, only brighter, maybe a spark in the darkness, a single point of light where everything was – or at least felt – good and pure and true. I could feel it, the electric sparks crackled over my skin, wherever he touched my my skin was alive with light and heat and wonder. I could also feel the candle flame beneath my skin, burning strong throughout my body and softening the moment, making it more loving and caring, it was just _nice_ to stand there surrounded by Edward.

After too short a moment, he pulled away, and started walking down the street, he was leaving me? Then it struck me like lightening – sudden and lethal – _I _was already leaving _him_! Again I was torn it two, one part of me was desperately screaming at me to stay here, the other – the authoritarian voice, that I had listened to my whole life and that commanded an awful lot of respect – reminded me that I should go back to my mums house in phoenix.

I hadn't really thought before about how me leaving would affect Edward, sure I knew we would miss each other, but I had never really comprehended the acute sensation in my chest that reminded me of being winded. He was ten paces down the street when he abruptly stopped and turned to face me, confusion written all over his face.

"You coming?" he asked, I nodded eagerly and skipped to his side, my hand twisting into his fingers of its own accord, I froze slightly when I noticed what my hand was doing, but immediately relaxed as his fingers willingly intertwined themselves with mine as well.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I don't know, I haven't been here all that long so I don't really know what there is to do around here."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot, lucky I still know my way around here... ish," we both laughed as I tacked the _ish_ on the end of my sentence.

"Ok, so where would you like to go? And is there food there because its two already and I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Well, there's bowling... or there's the cinema... or there's the ice rink..." I trailed off letting all the options I could think of hang in the air between us, they didn't hang all that long.

"Bowling sounds good, as long as we eat first!"

I laughed, "ok then, but the bowling alleys are in that direction," I said as I pointed to the left.

We arrived at the bowling alley at half two and Edward led us straight to the café area and ordered us some pizza. I chose Hawaiian – my favourite – while he ordered the meat feast. We ate quickly as we were both ravenous, and then we got a tub of cookie dough ice cream to share.

Half way through the tub, my phone vibrated, I quickly pulled it out, thinking Leah or someone had texted me – probably asking why it was taking so long to drop Edward's clothes off at his house – but as I slid my phone up I realised it was just letting me know it had died, useful.

"Damn, my phone just died," I sighed, as I slid my phone closed and slipped it back in my pocket.

"Oh well, if you need to phone anyone you can use mine," Edward offered.

"Thanks," I replied... then I blobbed ice cream on his nose.

I swear I didn't tell my hand to do that! It was just that he was leaning so far forward... and my spoon was all covered in ice cream... and it really was just a small flick of the wrist... but it was so funny!

"Hey!" he protested as he wiped his nose clean while I giggled.

Then he suddenly got a wicked gleam in his eye, and I was suddenly very nervous. It was the sort of look that said _you better watch out 'cause you won't like what I'm planning._ Edward leaned forward, and I simultaneously leaned back against my seat, I had no escape, I was trapped.

Then, fast as lightening, he flicked ice cream onto my chin. He smirked as I hurried to wipe it off, ok, this was war! I dug my spoon into the ice cream and scooped a huge chunk of ice cream out.

"Wait, stop!" he said urgently, yet still playfully.

"Why should I?" I asked menacingly.

"Do you remember the last time we got into a war like this? I believe it resulted in me blind folded with my hands tied in your bathroom while you had a shower," he smirked at me as my jaw dropped, he had me there and I blushed furiously at the memory.

"fine," I pouted feeling childish, "you win this time, but you better watch out mister, because you won't be so lucky next time."

He just laughed and we finished out ice cream while picking up the friendly conversation we were having about the best parts of _Shaun of the dead. _We agreed on the part where they all start beating the zombie in the pub in time with _don't stop me now._

At three we made our way to the actual bowling alley and swapped our shoes and started bowling. I had a red bull with me and Edward had a coke but once I persuaded him to try my red bull, his coke was quickly forgotten and we both drank a can of red bull each... which, coupled with the ice cream, was probably a bed idea.

First, because it made us need the toilet loads, and second, it made us _really_ hyper. Sugar and caffeine are a dangerous combination. Laughing the whole time, we made idiots of ourselves as we threw the ball down the lane weirdly, we tried girly throws, macho man throws, trying to throw the heaviest ball down the alley – which ended up being swung with both hands – and we got pretty competitive, both of us telling the other that they were _going down. _

We finished at four then decided to go to our meadow, it didn't have to be a place we came to just when we were upset and needed peace, it could be a fun place as well. When we were nearly there I pushed him over and ran, I tried to escape up a tree but Edward was right behind me, and I didn't get very far. He pulled me down on top of him... and then started tickling me. It was a whole two minutes of tickling before he got up then ran, now it was my turn to chase him.

I didn't get very far with tickling him, he pinned me down and made me promise not to try anything funny if he let me up. I kept my promise, but I was too hyper to just sit still, I showed him my attempt at a cartwheel, which wasn't that great, but not as bad as him, I actually fell over laughing as he landed in an Edward shaped heap.

He came and stood over me speculating for a moment, my laughter died as I suddenly became nervous. Next thing I knew, I was draped over his shoulder, shrieking at him to put me down.

"You want me to put you down?" he asked as the sound of the little stream at the edge of the meadow suddenly sounded much too close for my liking.

I tried to peek round his side, then saw that he was stood directly in front of the stream, "No!" I screamed, "put me down on dry land! Please!"

He chuckled and turned as I kicked my legs and started hitting his back – not too hard of course, just playfully – and dumped me down on the dry grass.

We started walking back at half five, and it was just gone six when we walked across the park, "Bella," I heard someone call, I turned around and discovered it was Alex.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Leah's on the warpath, she's been looking for you since five o'clock," he shouted back.

Oh crap!

* * *

**A/N – **sorry for the pitifully late update! I just had no idea how to work this chapter so Bella doesn't find out about vampires yet! So I kinda forgot about it as I wrote for my other stories!! forgive me?

Plz review!!!!


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N – **to clear up some confusions: Edward isn't a vamp (I love human Edward!) he was just adopted by vamps.

And Alex is just a random friend.

And I agree that Simon Pegg is awesome!!

* * *

**Chapter 11 – disaster**

Bugger! I had completely forgotten about the stupid date Leah had set me up on!

"Where is she?" I asked Alex apprehensively.

"I dunno," he said to me then turned to Seth and the rest of that group, "do any of you know where Leah is?"

They all turned to look at me and Edward, then each and every one of their faces drained of all colour and they suddenly looked like a herd of stampeding elephants was on its way, "erm..." Seth's voice went high pitched and he pointed timidly behind us.

"Where the _hell_ were you? And why is your phone turned off?" Leah screeched at me, and I suddenly realised the elephant analogy wasn't so far off the mark.

"My phone died," I said holding my phone up as proof, "...and I forgot?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, "I have under an hour to get you ready for this date, Bella, I hope whatever you were doing which made you _forget_ was worth it!" and with that she dragged me, almost literally kicking and screaming, back home.

She tugged me past my dad and her mum and straight up the stairs to her room. Once In Leah's room, she pushed me onto her bed and started going through her wardrobe frantically, flinging clothes everywhere. I sighed and flopped back onto the bed, why couldn't we have stayed in the meadow longer?

Well – I decided to look on the bright side – at least Leah only had a limited amount of time to torture me in, plus she had even less time as we were meeting at the restaurant.

"You might as well have a shower while I'm sorting your outfit out," she called over her shoulder to me. I sighed and got up to go to the bathroom, "and don't take forever!"

Damn, she caught me, I thought as I walked lethargically into the bathroom. I contemplated staying in the shower, but eventually decided that my life wasn't worth just an extended shower – it might be worth missing the date, but knowing Leah, she would force me to go on the date, _and then_ kill me.

I was just getting out of the shower when a knock on the door made me jump a foot in the air, "I put the clothes in your bedroom, you've got ten minutes to get changed them meet me in my bedroom."

I reluctantly trudged to my room, took one look at the ridiculous outfit and died of horror. It was a red spaghetti strap dress that came to mid thigh and some red and gold stilettos that looked positively dangerous. There was no way in hell I was going out wearing that!

For some reason I pulled the dress on anyway, and stood immobile in front of the mirror. If Leah thought I was going out like this then she had another thing coming. I quickly turned to my suitcase and started looking through my clothes for something half decent to wear. I settled for a long red top that, while coming no lower than the dress, gave a little more coverage over my top half, and threw on some leggings underneath.

I had to stick with the bright red man traps – or woman traps – though, because all I had with me was trainers and converses, not posh restaurant shoes. After I had finished with my alterations to the outfit, I proceeded to walk _very_ slowly and _extremely_ carefully to Leah's bedroom, where she was waiting to assault me. I took a deep breath and opened the door, grabbing onto it to keep me upright as I entered the room.

As predicted, Leah shrieked at me then tried every tactic in the book to try and persuade me to put the damn dress back on. But I stayed adamant, I was _not_ wearing that thing!

I walked down the stairs gripping onto the rail for dear life – literally, If I fell I would probably end up killing myself – at five past seven, and it would take another ten minutes to get there in the car.

My dad wolf whistled as I stepped into the living room, "who's a bonny lass then?"

"You sound like granddad," I mumbled, bright red.

He laughed, "it's about time you got a boyfriend Bella."

"He's not my boyfriend... whoever he is, this is a blind date, which I don't really want to do, but am doing anyway because I value my life too much." I replied.

He laughed, "what time do you have to be there? And where are you going?"

"Five minutes ago and la bella italia."

"Well, we best be off then," dad said and we walked out to his car.

I sat looking out the window as dad drove slowly through town, he drove slowly because, first there was lots of traffic, and second, the heavens had opened to let through the torrential downpour that was now hammering away at the car roof.

We eventually pulled up outside the restaurant and I could see it was busy, great, if they end up taking ages with our food, I'm skipping desert. I saw one person waiting in the lobby area, was it him I was going on this stupid date thingy with? He wore a shirt that you could so obviously see his excessive muscles through, it had to be deliberate.

He was Quileute, just like Seth, Leah and Sue. What bothered me – apart from his vanity and arrogance over his muscles – was the fact that he had actually _greased_ his hair back. He turned and looked out the window, and waved when he spotted me. I sighed I was going to have to run through the rain, and in these heels? That was practically suicide.

True to from, as I was running to the door to the restaurant, my ankle wobbled and I fell flat on my face, in the wet, muddy street. Well, it wasn't as if I was really trying to impress the guy was it? But I now had a scrape on my chin that stung slightly.

I quickly stood up and – not caring about my already soaking feet at this point – quickly took off my shoes and hurried into the restaurant.

I cringed as I heard the loudest voice ever – apart from Leah's – laugh and shout to me, "are you Isabella Swan?"

I only nodded, but he felt the need to comment, "ha, that was hilarious, you're so clumsy, little shortie!" oh, so he'd moved onto terms of endearment already had he?

Flushing with embarrassment, I quickly mumbled that we should probably take a seat now. But – due to extremely bad planning and a busy Friday night – there was no table for two free. Would it be bad of me to say I was secretly glad of that?

So, we had to go back into the rain, I shivered and pulled my thin jacket tighter over my shoulders. I walked along wobbling on every other step, trying and failing to keep up with his long strides as he hurried to be out of the rain.

"Hey, wait for me," I called as he got too far ahead.

He turned around, "come on! I'm getting drenched here! God shortie, you're slower than a snail!"

I tried to hurry to be caught up with him sooner, but again I fell, Jacob, of course, just started laughing hysterically. I quickly got up, ignoring the painful sensation that I was developing bruises on both knees.

By now, I was tired and hungry, and definitely wasn't in the mood for this. I wanted to be home, warm and dry, much rather than trailing around the streets of Forks after Jacob and his huge legs in this unforgiving weather.

Jacob led me into a kebab house a couple of streets away, I didn't really like kebabs but I wasn't about complain, I was too hungry. We both got a lamb donner kebab each and – I really should have seen this coming – as I was descending the steps leading down to the street – there was no space to stay inside – I fell oh so gracefully and landed in a heap on the floor.

My donner went everywhere and my ankle had completely given way and was now really rather painful. I winced and sucked in the cold air through my teeth.

Jacob turned around and looked at the floor, "damn I paid for that, are you alright?"

"No, I think I twisted my ankle," I said.

"oh, right, what do you want me to do?" he was clearly out of his depth.

"It's fine just take me to the hospital and I'll have my foot checked out by a doctor or something."

"ok, erm... how do we do that?"

I sighed frustrated and got out my phone, I phone my dad, telling him that I probably twisted my ankle and to pick me up outside of – I looked at the sign above me – top Kappi's. Ugh, this was the second date in two days that ended in disaster.

**Edward's pov**

"Where is she?" Bella asked Alex apprehensively.

"I dunno," he said to Bella then turned to Seth and the rest of his friends, "do any of you know where Leah is?"

They all turned to look at us, then each of them blanched and they suddenly looked like something very unpleasant – and scary – was coming their way, "erm..." Seth's voice went high pitched and he pointed timidly behind us.

"Where the _hell_ were you? And why is your phone turned off?" Leah screeched at Bella, and I suddenly felt very sorry for her.

"My phone died," she said holding her phone up as proof, "...and I forgot?"

Leah narrowed her eyes at Bella, "I have under an hour to get you ready for this date, Bella, I hope whatever you were doing which made you _forget_ was worth it!" well _I_ certainly thought it was.

Then Bella was gone, but before I could feel awkward Seth called me over and introduced me to his friends, who were also Bella's friends, it seemed like everyone knew each other. Seth budged up and made as space next to him, and I found out that in the group here, there was; Alex, Eric, Tyler, Embry, Tanya and the girls I had met last night; Emily, Kim, Lauren, Jess, and Angela.

We just sat and messed about for a while, a little like what me and Bella were doing in the meadow only with more people, and less tickling. It was strange how so many people seemed to like and accept me, I had never really had many friends outside my family before, it felt strange, but in a good way.

After about thirty minutes, Kim and Emily came over and sat next to me. Everyone else was pretty scattered about as a result of the chaos caused by one person splashing water at someone else, it was pretty chaotic.

Kim leaned in and murmured to me, "you like Bella don't you?"

I froze, well this was awkward, but no-one else was around to hear, I looked at Kim and found only curiosity and concern, "yeah" I admitted, defeated because I was caving in to her request – something I really didn't want to do – and embarrassed because was it really that pitifully obvious? I had only known her for a day!

"It's a shame Bella's going back soon, that's always how it is... Bella's always going back," Kim was wistful, she wanted Bella to stay almost as much as I did.

"only one more day," I sighed, depressed, then she would go back to where she was miserable.

"Wait, one more day?!" Kim and Emily asked almost in unison, the timing was only slightly off.

"yeah, she told me this morning that she was going back on Sunday," I replied, had she not told them?

Emily turned around and called Seth over, he didn't know Bella was going back on Sunday either, I guess she just forgot. I told them that her mum wanted Bella back early because she was pregnant. Then Emily suggested having a leaving party tomorrow, so we started planning it together.

But soon, it started raining, forcing us all to flee indoors. Damn, my house was ages away. But as I turned to jog through the rain back to my house, Seth said that me Emily and Kim should come back with him so we could finish planning the party.

We almost had everything finalised, with the approval of both Bella's dad and Seth's mum... and Leah, eventually. Leah had wanted to blow everything way out of proportion, lots of candles and streamers and all other party decorations she could think of. However, we managed to persuade her to scale it down a bit as getting the house _that_ decorated in a day would be impossible.

Then Bella called asking her dad to come and pick her up from her date. Apparently she had twisted her ankle, she said there was no swelling so it would probably be alright tomorrow. Then the conversation moved on to getting everyone there – we decided that Leah and Seth could just text everyone – and how to distract Bella for the day. Kim appointed me to the job before anyone else could say anything. I just caught her smirk and wink as she turned back to Leah to discuss the cake.

We had moved onto a game of cards with Sue – she insisted that I call her that – when we heard the front door open. We all turned to look but Bella – looking extremely bedraggled and exhausted – limped straight to the kitchen without a glance to the living room. Then her dad came round the corner, and collapsed onto the sofa.

"What happened?" Sue murmured concerned as she moved to sit on the sofa as well.

"The kid was an idiot, he hadn't booked a table, and the restaurant was full, so they had to go somewhere else, and then she fell over and he just stood there, didn't do a thing to help her," he replied quietly too, but the annoyance in his voice was evident.

"Should I go cheer her up?" Leah asked as she started to make her way to the kitchen.

"I don't think that's a good idea Leah," sue told her daughter, "it was you her made her go on this date after all, just give her time to cool down a little first ok?"

Leah nodded, then Sue got up, "looks like I'm doing tea for eight, tonight," she said looking around at us then walked into the kitchen.

We all ate in the living room as there were too many to fit around the table, Bella seemed to have shaken most of her annoyance but she obviously wasn't in the best mood and she was quite tired. It turned out that she hadn't managed to get anything to eat on her "date". This date was worse than the one with Mike Newton, at least then me and Seth had saved her before things could go too badly and end up with her being as pissed off and as down cast as she was now.

Tea didn't last long and Charlie – he insisted I call him that – drove me Kim and Emily home in the light shower that had replaced the monsoon from earlier. I jogged down my long drive and walked through the door more than slightly damp. I ignored the curious eyes trained on me as I walked to the stairs and headed for a shower. I had finally accepted that they were vampires, it took a lot thought but I came to accept it in the end, now I was mostly just mad about the lies, I felt like a complete idiot, for believing so many lies for so long.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11 – ouch **

It was the first night I'd spent back in my house since knowing about vampires. It wasn't the first time I'd been back in the house, but it was the first night I'd spent in my own bed since then... sleeping... completely vulnerable, and oblivious to my surroundings...

I woke up with a start, half surprised that I had actually woken up. That was stupid, I'd been living with them twelve years and they hadn't murdered me in my sleep so far... but now they had a reason.

I groaned and tried to think happy thoughts... ok, ice-cream? That was a happy thought wasn't it? It was until the strawberry sauce started to look too much like blood. Ok, Christmas, think about Christmas... Santa Clause, coming down the chimney... sneaking into your house at night while your asleep, moving around in secret, basically breaking and entering, he could kill you without you even noticing. God, who makes this stuff up?

I sat up and tried to ignore my own morbidity and get ready for the day like I usually did, before... I knew. I got up and under the influence of my stomach, I made my way to the kitchen.

I mechanically poured myself a bowl of cereal, trying to shake the last remnants of sleep from my body and rub my eyes awake. I saw Esme Alice and Rosalie through the door, at least they didn't try and keep up the stupid façade and sit there in dressing-gowns and with empty bowls in front of them.

They knew that I had accepted their vampirism, it was just the lies that I was stuck on now. They noticed my glare and left me to eat my breakfast in peace, Rosalie was haughty and arrogant as she walked past with her nose so far up in the air I was surprised it didn't have vertigo, while Alice and Esme were slightly more contrite and remorseful as they went upstairs. God knew where everyone else was.

The doorbell rung then, why would anyone be calling here this early? They must be insane. I shuffled to the door, after the shock of waking up, my mind and body seemed to have tried to get me to go back to sleep, I could feel myself being dragged back under every now and then, it was better now I had had something to eat, but I had only had half a bowl of cheerios, that doesn't really do much to perk you up in the morning.

I pulled the door open and the cool air hitting my face refreshed me and helped me wake up some. Then I noticed that standing there were Bella and Seth. Suddenly I was very conscious of the fact that all I had on were pyjama bottoms. Woops. Flashes of Bella's hot steamy bathroom ran through my mind as Bella and Seth smirked, it was weird how they had almost identical expressions.

I quickly invited them in and we moved to the kitchen, I could feel four eyes trained on my bare back as I walked and it made me extremely self conscious. As I walked into the kitchen I almost walked straight into a t-shirt that Alice was holding up for me, her face was neutral, she didn't approve or disapprove of my friends she was wary but still wanted to get on my good side again.

"Thanks," I muttered, Alice nodded once and shot off out the other door.

I went straight for my breakfast on strict instructions from my stomach, asked them what brought them over so early and continued to eat my now soggy cheerios.

"Well, Leah came storming into my room ridiculously early this morning saying that we had to get out of the house like, now. She practically dragged me out of bed," Bella said amused, then she turned to give a hard stare to Seth, "I was annoyed but at least I didn't slap her in the face, unlike _someone_ I know."

"Hey! It was an accident and do you really think she didn't deserve it?" Seth defended himself playfully.

Bella grinned, "yeah, you're right... High-five!" I laughed at them as they high-fived each other across the table.

"Do either of you want anything?" I asked, but they both shook their heads.

I put my bowl in the sink and, after a moments hesitation, I quickly washed it out and left to get dressed. I rushed up the stairs, grabbed some clothes and hurried into the bathroom.

I took an extremely quick shower, cherishing the short moments when the hot water cascaded down my body, but then more eager to cherish the precious moments where I was with Bella, made even more special by their limited numbers. Sigh, Bella was going back tomorrow... I pushed away the sadness, determined to enjoy my remaining time with her.

I jumped out of the shower and dressed in a hurry to be downstairs sooner, the way I was running around because of her was pretty pathetic, but I wouldn't change it. I left my hair wet, I couldn't be bothered to dry it properly, so, I just settle for quickly giving it a rub with my towel before I went back downstairs.

Alice was waiting for me again as I walked out my door, "Where are you going?" I could hear her struggle to keep the accusations out of her voice.

"Dunno yet," Alice wasn't doing very well at getting back on my good side, I could tell she didn't trust Bella and Seth.

"What time will you be home?" she tried to pry again, although this was a more reasonable request, it still grated at my nerves.

"I can tell what you're thinking, you don't have to worry about Bella and Seth, you don't have to get close enough to them to risk them finding out, but there's nothing stopping me having friends, and I trust them, I wont tell them but if they ever do find out, by accident, I trust them," I walked down the stairs trying to clear my mind, it was easy once I got downstairs and stepped into the comfortable, friendly atmosphere surrounding Seth and Bella.

"Right, what are we doing today then?" not putting much effort into creating enthusiasm, I could feel the genuine energy creep slowly back in after the tense exchange with Alice.

"So," Bella said turning to me, matching my enthusiasm in her tone, "the remaining options are: ice skating, or the cinema."

"Hey! What about bowling? Or swimming?" Seth interjected.

"Sorry Seth," I replied, "we did that yesterday."

"And I don't have a costume," Bella supplied for not going swimming.

"Fine then, if you got to pick yesterday, I vote ice skating today," he declared, pouting like a five-year-old.

We got to the ice rink, hired skates and were about to go out onto the ice when Bella hesitated, "What's wrong?" I asked.

She shook her head, "nothing, I'm just a little apprehensive about going out onto the ice," she brushed her own worries off.

"What are you apprehensive about?" I asked gently, she seemed reluctant to tell me and pushing her wasn't going to help that.

"Just... falling over you know? You've seen how incredibly graceful I am on flat, non-slippery ground," she confessed.

Ah, "Are you saying the incident in the woods, resulting in almost concussion, was a regular occurrence?"

She only nodded with a crimson face. On impulse, I linked my arm through hers and held it securely, "I wont let go," I promised quietly, volume wouldn't prove my sincerity.

She raised her head a fraction to look at me, but before she could get that far and reveal her expression, we both heard Seth calling us, "Come on guys! We did actually come here to skate you know!" he laughed and continued onto his second lap of the rink.

We laughed too, but then I felt the tension in Bella creep back in as we approached the ice. I stepped onto the ice and turned to face her to better help her stay upright. I took both her hands in mine and fortunately possessed just enough stability to prevent us landing in a heap until she was able to grab onto the side with one hand, I still didn't let go of one hand, I was determined to keep my promise, it might not seem like much, but it was a promise none the less.

We made a couple of laps with Bella hanging onto the side and constantly looking down at her feet. I tried to persuade her to let go of the side, but she wouldn't listen.

"Come on Bella, I wont let go," I reminded her of my earlier promise.

"No," she protested stubbornly.

"Bella," I said as I stopped and moved to stand in front of her. Still with my right hand clasping hers, I coaxed her chin up up with the fingers on my left hand, "look at me," I said softer, "Do you trust me?" I asked looking deep into her deep chocolate eyes, the feeling was literally like swimming in melted chocolate, warm and soft, the delicious liquid caressing every part of me...

She nodded, not breaking eye contact, good. But that simple motion was enough to make my heart swell, she trusted me, everyone I knew before was always naturally distrusted my _family,_ and therefore me by association, and then finding out the web of lies that captured my life up until now... I trusted Bella and she trusted me, I felt like I was floating, yet at the same time securely anchored, I had a life line and I was pretty sure it led back to Bella.

I lowered my hand from her face and gently lifted her hand from the wall, I felt no resistance from her as I took both her hands in mine. I pulled her from the side only a little and turned to face forward and laced my arm through hers again, I wasn't that great at going backwards. She gripped onto my arm for dear life as we skated slowly around the edge, I could feel each wobble as we glided over the ice and how every time she wobbled, her grip would tighten instantly for a second until she was sure she would remain vertical.

After a few minutes Bella's wobbles became more infrequent as she gained confidence on the ice and we started moving slightly faster. Until someone decided to try and overtake us at an insane pace and crashed into Bella, she fell into me and we both hit the floor – well, _I _did anyway.

Fortunately, Bella landed on top of me and didn't even touch the ice... unfortunately, I hit my head... quite hard. Ouch. One of the attendants skated over quickly and asked if I was alright and if I wanted some ice to put on my head. I said yes to both. I helped Bella up as I tried to get up awkwardly and we both made our way to the side of the rink.

"Are you ok? Do you want to stay on here?" I asked as we reached the considerably more stable wall.

"No, I'm fine... and what happened to not letting me go? That isn't exactly compatible with me staying on here while you go have your head treated by some pretty ice princess person," she said keeping a firm grip on my hand, and starting to pull me with her towards the gate to get off the ice.

I quirked my brow as I skated next to her, "pretty ice princess person?" I asked doubtfully, I didn't even know which one had approached us, not one of them was pretty compared to Bella.

She simply shrugged and blushed, I couldn't fathom what she was thinking so I let it go. We got off the ice and made our way to the bench to sit down. After literally two seconds the ice warden returned with an ice pack, wrapped in some kinda material.

"Don't worry, I'm trained in first aid," she said with a smile, "now, where did you hit your head?"

Slightly disturbed by her forwardness my hand without conscious thought reached up to lightly feel the small bump that was already forming at the back of my head. The ice warden took that as an invitation to cover it with the ice pack, I winced and hissed as the cold ice hit the back of my head.

"Woops, sorry," she said as she pulled the ice pack back, I merely grunted in reply.

I felt Bella's fingers slip from mine as she spoke, "I can take over now," she moved so she was kneeling right behind me on the bench and took the ice pack.

I felt a gentle hand on my head – not the injured part – tilting it forward, I felt my hair ruffle as Bella moved my hair with her fingers, trying to see the bump without touching my skin. I felt cold air hit my scalp as the ice pack slowly came closer, and then gently rested on my skin. I gasped at the cold then sighed as the pain started to ebb.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," she replied.

"Ok, I think my head's starting to go numb," I informed her after almost ten minutes of comfortable silence.

She lifted the ice pack, "does it feel any better?" she asked.

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt any more, just don't hit me over the back of the head whatever you do," I joked.

"I wasn't planning on it," she replied.

"Good."

"Can I ask you a question?" she said timidly.

"You mean apart from that one?"

"Yeah..." she trailed off, not joining in the joke.

I swivelled around to face her, "Bella, you can ask me anything," I told her sincerely.

She looked down and I struggled slightly to hear her small voice as she spoke to the bench, "Well... I was just wondering... what happened... to your parents... like how you came to be adopted."

I sighed and took her hand, letting her know that I wasn't offended by her question and I would answer it, it wasn't exactly easy to talk about, but I couldn't remember most of it so that kinda made it easier, "it was a house fire," I started, "I cant remember how it started or much at all from that night, its all bright, blurry colours... and screams. It was just a few days after my sixth birthday and we had been forced, by the flames, into the downstairs bathroom, I was the only one small enough to fit through the window, I fell and sprained my ankle, but I crawled away screaming for help while the fire was starting to burn the door... but it did no good.

"The firemen just couldn't control the fire... Fortunately someone had taken me away from the fire, towards the hospital so I didn't actually see them die... but I could still hear their screams before I was taken too far away."

I came back to reality to find Bella's arm around me and her head on my shoulder while I still held onto the hand that I'd claimed earlier, "that's horrible," she whispered, not in disgust, but in sympathy, as we both stared at our joined hands.

"Yeah, that's kinda why I cant cook," I admitted.

She looked at me confused, I took a deep breath and explained, "Remember when we got back to your house that first day? Once I had finished bandaging up your head and I kinda moved to the opposite side of the room when you cooked the pizza? I cant handle candles either, or any other naked flames like lighters or anything."

"Oh," she said, not sure what to make of this new information about me while I continued to play with her fingers.

"Hey guys! You ready for lunch yet?" Seth called from the gate, walking over to us.

"Sure," I called back then bent down to take my skates off as Bella did the same.

We got sandwiches from the serving hatch in the building and some sweets and drinks from the vending machines as we wandered outside. At half four Bella got a text from Kim asking for her to come over, me and Seth both told her to go, we practically frog-marched her to Kim's, although I wasn't exactly sure why she had to go over there _now,_ this party was meant to be starting at seven.

Me and Seth started wandering around but then we got a call from Leah telling us to get to the house quickly. As soon as we turned up, Leah dragged us roughly through the door and started barking instructions at us, such as to move the sofa out of the way as she was planning to make room for a twister mat, and some other things that fit somehow into her grand scheme for the perfect party.

Unfortunately, Leah's idea of the perfect party involved lots of pink... and some candles. The recent trip down memory lane was still lingering in my mind, the blazing flashes of bright orange and searing yellow... I started getting nervous as Leah arranged some candles on the mantle piece, at least she wasn't scattering them out around the room, I would just have to stay away from the candles. I could always escape, there were other rooms in the house and Leah planned to have the large doors leading to the garden open as the weather was still warm, if not sunny.

"Edward, can you do the cake?" Leah's voice yanked me back forcefully from my contemplation of escape routes.

"Huh?" was my ingenious reply.

"Edward, can you bring the cake in, you know, when we turn the lights down, and then someone comes in with the cake with the candles-" she was irritated that I didn't listen to her the first time but I couldn't let her finish.

"No!" I almost shouted at her, the looked at me in disbelief and was probably about to launch into a long and high-pitched rant about how I should do the cake so I tried to offer an alternative, "can I take the pictures instead?"

"I don't know..." she said deliberating over my offer.

"please?" I used my most persuasive tone, unashamedly pleading, begging her not to force me to do this.

"Umm... ok? Sure... you can... take the pictures," she concededly looking at me strangely, probably wondering why I was so desperate to not handle the cake... with the candles.

I sighed in relief and made myself look busy with making sure that all the food was set out in the kitchen with the paper plates and the plastic knives and forks. Leah came in and ordered me to help her change, I turned around and looked at her like she had three heads, she was a girl! I couldn't help her get changed!

She rolled her eyes and grabbed my had to tow me upstairs, "I have a boyfriend, don't think I'm letting you see what hasn't been seen before."

"Will he shoot me once he knows I helped you change?" not that I was planning on that.

"Don't be stupid, he doesn't have a gun! Besides, all I want you to do is tell me which dress looks better and probably zip me up a few times," ok, that doesn't sound so bad, then I turned cold with dread, _a few times_? How many dresses does she plan on showing me?

I waited on the landing while Leah got dressed in her room, she showed me seven dresses, _seven dresses!_ All posh, party dresses that looked like they had never been worn, how does any human have _seven dresses_?! She reminded me entirely too much of Alice, I just hoped the way I usually dealt with Alice's energy and bossiness would also work on Leah.

I tried to be a gentleman and say something good about all the dresses, but honestly I had no idea what I was talking about, growing up with Esme had produced the right reactions in me just without the reasoning that went with them.

Fortunately, I only had to zip the back of her dress up twice, both times were awkward, and both times I tried to get it over quickly while trying to touch as little of her skin as possible. I finally picked one of the dresses for her to wear and she happily skipped back into her room.

I had just decided to go downstairs when Leah's head popped around the door as if shed forgotten something, "Oh, Edward, what have you got with you to wear tonight?"

"Erm..." I seriously hadn't thought about that at all.

She gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes as she pulled me along to Seth's room, so I could borrow yet more of his clothes, at the rate this was going we would run out of things to wear very soon, I would have to make sure I got all this back to him clean as soon as I could.

Then I noticed that Leah was no longer in a dress, and instead was in a loose tracksuit. Huh? Even _I_ knew that there was no way in hell that she would – normally – wear a tracksuit to a party.

"Erm... what happened to your outfit?" I asked thoroughly perplexed.

She giggled, "well, I cant wear it _now,_ first I have to find you something decent to wear for tonight, then I'll probably have to stop Seth from wearing one of his ugly t-shirts then I have to wash and then do my hair and make up, _then_ I get to wear the dress."

_Woosh._ That was the sound of Leah's speech going straight over the top of my head, I resolved to shut up and just go with the flow or else have a huge headache and probably sore ears.

Going with the flow worked pretty well, I found myself stood, with everyone else – I think Leah invited the entire, teenage population of forks – in the living room, waiting for Kim to walk in with Bella. My stomach knotted in anticipation.

I was happy that Bella was having a party thrown for her before leaving, but this party made it seem like she was moving to the other side of the world... or maybe it just felt that way to me.

I refused to go anywhere near the mantle piece all night, and I'm sure my blatant avoidance of the area was noticed, but no one said anything. When Leah brought the cake in I stood well back but made sure I had a good view and made excellent use of the zoom button.

I decided to walk out into the garden after it was too difficult to stay in the living room. I sat on the edge of the patio and before I knew it I had a dog on my lap. I think his name was Ace? I patted him quickly but then shoved him off my lap as his claws were digging in and I kept getting whacked in the face by various, fur-covered doggy parts, mainly the tail and the nose.

I looked up and realised that, through the extremely thin clouds, the sun was setting. I felt the electricity before I even knew it was her – although those were pretty simultaneous as the electricity actually _told_ me it was her.

I smiled to myself, "Enjoying your party?" I asked.

"Ok, first: I hate surprises... but this was a good one, and second-" I was expecting another witty comment but instead her voice grew inexplicably soft, "thank you."

I turned to look at her in shock, up close her beauty was overwhelming, the delicate blue dress defined her slender form perfectly while the colour made her skin glow radiantly. She had only some blue glittery eye make-up on – no idea what kind, but apparently there's a difference between liner and shadow, apparently, its sometimes necessary to use both – and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun. She had some pink glossy stuff on her lips that immediately grabbed my attention, her lips looked so delicious...

"Er, you welcome, but Leah out the most work into the house, she was like a drill sergeant," we both laughed.

"No, I mean yeah, she did put a lot of effort in... but I'm told it was mostly you who convinced her not to go for an all out rave, but what I mean is you put a lot of _thought_ into it, not just effort like every one else... so thank you for that... and I know there were candles there," she had shuffled closer to me and picked my hand up holding it in both of hers, I closed my eyes as she lowered her voice and leaned in even more, I could practically feel her hair on my cheek, "and I wanted to say thank you again... for enduring that, for me, thank you," she whispered the last part.

She suddenly leaned over and wrapped her arms around my neck. I responded by wrapping my own arms around her tiny waist. I could smell the sweet strawberry scent of her hair, I would no longer be able to think of strawberries without thinking of Bella, she smelled so delicious.

"I'll miss you," she whispered over my shoulder.

"I'll miss you too, even if we did meet only four days ago."

"Yeah, but it was the best four days ever."

"I cant disagree with you there," we both laughed quietly, then I heard a sniff.

I pulled Bella back and saw tears, mixed with the black substance coating – or that once coated – her eyelashes running down her cheeks, I ran a thumb under her eye trying to remove the black stain, but instead just smudged it.

"What's wrong?" I didn't know why I was still whispering, no one was likely to overhear us but talking felt to loud.

"I'm just thinking about leaving, you know," she gave me a weak smile and laughed through her tears.

I pulled her back into my embrace as she broke down into sobs and tried to soothe her, "You'll be back before you know it and we'll still be able to keep in touch."

I was relieved when her sobs ceased and her body finally relaxed, "Shall we get some tissues?" I asked her and received just a nod in reply.

We stood up and as entered the living room, Bella sped up to try and avoid the attention and getting asked whether she was alright, honestly I didn't blame her for wanting to make a quick escape through the crowd. But unfortunately, her efforts were wasted as someone did see her.

"What did you do to make Bella cry?" this guy was right in my face shouting at me and didn't even wait for an answer, "huh? What did you do? What did you say to her?"

He had started poking me in the chest, he was Quileute like Seth and Leah, but he was huge, and extremely muscled... and extremely angry, he might have even been drunk.

"Nothing," I tried to stay calm.

"Don't give me that crap! Bella was crying!" he shouted at me.

"Yeah, but-" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence as his fist came out of nowhere and connected – forcefully – with the side of my head. He went for another hit with the other arm but I blocked it, so he went for my stomach while my hands were still in front of my face, but as I brought my hands to my, now winded and extremely painful stomach, he punched me in the face again, my head went back and hit the wall, right in the same place I had hit on the ice earlier.

Gasping for breath and swimming in pain from the explosion in my head, I sunk to the floor. I could feel blood from my split lip trickling down my chin as I looked up at the man-mountain standing over me.

"What the hell happened here?!" I heard Leah's voice carry over the now silent party as she came back through the door with Bella who now had completely clean cheeks.

The guy span around, "He made Bella cry," he stated as if his word was the unopposed law.

Bella's eyes found mine and she gasped, I was sure I was a sight, sitting on the ground under... _him_ wheezing, clutching my stomach and with blood trailing down my chin, yeah it was kinda no surprise she was shocked.

"You idiot!" Leah screeched at him, "nobody made Bella cry! She was crying because she was leaving! Oh my god! What kind of senseless idiot just goes up to people and starts beating them up? Get out of here Paul!" Leah stood there fuming while Paul faltered under her hard glare then shuffled out of the room like a puppy with its tail between its legs.

"What are you all looking at? Go on! This isn't any of your beeswax!" Leah shouted as soon as Paul had left.

Bella was suddenly at my side, "Oh my god are you alright? Do we need some more ice for your head? Come on lets go to the kitchen."

I let her pull me up and though the living room and sit me down while she went to the first aid kit. She got a bag of frozen peas and wrapped it in the dishcloth then handed it to me to hold against my head. She quickly went back to the first aid kit and got out a wipe to clean up my chin.

She started at she base of my chin and worked up, until she was at the edge of my lip. I hope she didn't notice me swallow, but she gently, hesitantly touched my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth slightly so she could get at the cut better. I felt electric as her fingers touched my lip again, even through the sting of her cleaning my cut, this felt good.

She finished too soon and turned to pack the first aid kit away then turned to face me, "Sorry."

I was confused, "Sorry for what?"

"For just running off and leaving you to deal with Paul, if I was there we could have avoided this," she explained.

"Bella, it's not your fault that some psycho decided to beat me up without giving me a chance to explain, he was probably looking for a fight and I was just the perfect opportunity."

"Yeah," she sighed, "Paul does have a violent streak, he used to get into loads of fights before his dad put him in kickboxing classes."

"Hey, are you alright man?" Seth asked as he walked in.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I grinned at him.

"Ooh, split lip," he shook his head, "just don't eat crisps with that," he said as he picked a sausage roll and left.

After another ten minutes my head felt slightly better and I pulled the ice pack from my head, "Does it still hurt?" Bella asked me slightly worriedly.

"Not much, just a little bit of a headache now," I assured her.

"She turned and got me some pain killers and a glass of water, "Thank you," I said as she handed them to me with a smile.

"No problem, just make sure it doesn't happen again."

After the pain killers took effect everyone else had already left and now we just had the job of tidying up. Once we had finished we all sat down on the sofa completely exhausted, or at least I was completely exhausted anyway. I could hear Leah going on about the party on the arm chair in the corner and Seth said something back to her as Bella stayed quiet next to me.

I felt my eyelids droop, and I welcomed the sleep, trying to put off going home for as long as I could, god knows how Esme or anyone would react if they saw me with a split lip and a developing black eye. I knew it would probably look worse in the morning but at that point I simply didn't care.

I rested my head against the back of the sofa as I felt myself slip further into sleep. How come I always end up falling asleep at Bella's house when her dad isn't there?

* * *

**A/N – **just broken my personal record for the longest chapter I've ever written!!!! celebrations are in order! So, for a limited time only reviews will earn a sneak peak at the next chappy! ( yeah I know, I'm not above bribery lol!)


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12 – departure **

**Bella's pov**

When I woke up I kept my eyes closed, I desperately hoped the pillow wouldn't move this time, I hoped I hadn't fallen asleep on Edward... but once I thought about it I wasn't quite sure if this was true... ok, it definitely wasn't true, I wanted to wake up near – or _on _– Edward.

_Damn_, my memory returned from last night, I remembered the whole Paul fiasco and then Edward helping to tidy the house with us, then we all collapsed on the sofa because we were so exhausted. There were still some memories struggling through the hazy cloud of sleep that still permeated most of my brain. Hold on there's more just coming back to me... oh yeah, Seth and Leah were arguing, then... I think I drifted off to sleep for a short while because next Leah was shaking me awake...

Then she was going to wake Edward up... but then I said he would probably sleep on the sofa anyway because there were no spare beds... then I remembered going to get a blanket with Leah... I remembered Edwards sleeping face, the face of an angel... an angel I would be leaving for god knows how long today. Renee was pretty stern about me coming home, what if she wont let me visit any more? Of course she cant stop me seeing my dad, but I wouldn't put it past Phill to try.

I finally opened my eyes with some resistance from my eyelids and saw my darkened room. I glanced at my clock and vaguely registered that it was two in the morning, but I was moving mechanically, without thought, along the landing... down the stairs... into the living room... onto the sofa... into Edwards arms.

This time when I woke up, I was where I wanted to be. This time I wasn't shocked to find my head resting on a chest so perfect it could only belong to one man, it was comforting. Keeping my eyes closed I snuggled closer to him, breathing in his delicious scent. I had nothing to compare his scent to, there was nothing like it, he was entirely unique – except for the whole two eyes, one nose, to ears etc. thing – and that just made him all the more... irresistible.

"Good morning," he muttered, "I must say it was a surprise to wake up like this."

I blushed, "good morning, what time is it?" I replied dodging the awkward observation.

"Erm..." he dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone, "just gone eleven."

I groaned into his shirt, I had only two hours left, and I still had to pack.

"What's wrong?" he asked although I'm pretty sure he had a good idea what was wrong.

"I have two hours, and I have to pack," I whined still hiding my face in his shirt.

"Do you need any help?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah, but how about breakfast first? Or lunch since its closer to twelve?" my words came out muffled.

"Brunch?" he asked, "sounds good."

I reluctantly rolled out of Edwards arms and went to the kitchen with him following me.

"What would li-" I gasped and almost fell over – not a major achievement for me – when I turned around and saw Edward properly for the first time that morning.

He had one hell of a black eye, the bruise covering all of the skin around his eye and on his temple, reaching almost to his hairline. There was a little swelling around his eye but his lips was puffed up like a balloon. His copper hair was even more dishevelled than usual, but it was mostly plastered to the side of his head. His shirt was all creased and wrinkled and hung off his body awkwardly and some of the buttons had come undone in the night, revealing yet another bruise, huge, purple and fist-shaped, staining his skin just below his ribs.

Edward froze in the act of scratching the back of his neck, "Bella?"

"Oh my god," I breathed, confusing him even further but I honestly couldn't couldn't manage to get anything more coherent out.

Edward was looking kinda worried now, "Bella? What's wrong?" he waited for me to answer then continued when it was obvious he wasn't going to get one, "Are you alright?"

That finally got a reaction, however I don't think it was the one he was going for, "Am _I_ alright?! What about _you_?! Just look at you! I mean, you're just... you're just," I stared at him in exasperation after my deafening outburst – both in volume and pitch.

"Bella?" he said softly, apprehensively, he was at my side now and looking at me like a policeman looks at a criminal threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb, I was sure he hadn't comprehended one word of me screeching.

"Just look at yourself, Edward," I sighed.

Confused, he complied and went to look in the mirror hanging behind the sofa in the living room. I followed him and watched him grimace as he caught sight of his reflection. He brought his hand up and gently prodded the bruise on his temple and winced slightly at the pressure and dropped his hand.

"I can see why you gasped," he said looking at me through the mirror, "I'm barely recognisable, I look like a thug!"

He turned and started laughing and I joined in. I asked his if anything was sore, and, even though he assured me it was nothing, I made him take some more pain killers anyway. I made some pancakes while Edward sat at the other end of the kitchen, I had never noticed before but he was perched on the edge of the chair as if he was planning on making a run for it at any given moment. His anxiety was subtle and I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't looking for it.

I piled all the pancakes on one big plate and set that on the table along with two other plates – for me and for Edward – and some fruit and spreads, such as jam – I know jam on pancakes sounds weird but with the help of Renee's "adventurous" cooking, I discovered that it actually tastes pretty good. I included some sugar and golden syrup as well because sweet pancakes are so much more exciting and... it was my last day here. _Sigh._

Have you ever wanted to slow time down, or just stop it completely? Whether it's because you're really dreading something coming up or you're just so happy where you are and you don't want things to change? Or even both? If you haven't, l can inform you that time takes no pity on you, it mercilessly speeds up laughing in your face, mocking you cruelly.

Me and Edward packed up my things until I was set and it was time to leave. I didn't want to leave, saying goodbye was always hard, but I had a feeling that this time was going to be so much worse.

I didn't want my time with Edward to end, sure I had fun and laughed with everyone else, but no one made me forget my problems in phoenix as thoroughly as Edward did, and just being around him... It wasn't a cliché warm fuzzy feeling in my tummy, it was more of a deep enjoyment and tingly excitement that left my stomach in pleasant knots and zinging electricity all over my skin that made me feel hyper aware of everything – especially Edward, that goes without saying! – and made me feel... more _alive_ than I had ever felt before. I felt everything more extreme while I was around him, like a damper had been put on me and Edward had the power to lift it off.

Plus I was leaving him alone to deal with the problem of his secretive family. Couldn't I just take him with me? Grrr, and have him live in my house with Phill? I don't think so. Dammit, why was everything so impossible? See Edward even made me feel more confused than when my mum tried to explain the mechanics of where babies come from at five years old, at the time I had no idea what _little swimmers_ were!

Damn, why did one o'clock have to come around so fast? I heard people moving downstairs and registered in the back of my mind that Seth or Leah must be up, but that was just an abstract thought that didn't receive much attention. I felt a lump the size of a football form in my throat as I looked at Edward and thought about how I wouldn't be able to see him for about seven weeks, that's forty-nine days or one thousand, one hundred and seventy-six hours! That's a hell of a long wait however you look at it.

I couldn't help it, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged myself tightly to him, "I'll miss you," I whispered into his shoulder while inhaling his amazing – and wondrously intoxicating – scent, I was probably being a bit too intimate for him, but it was like I had to feel him in my arms one last time.

So, it really surprised me when he whispered, "me too," into my hair and hugged my waist securely.

We stood like that for a while and I barely managed to hold back the tears as we held onto each other. But eventually, we had to move, to carry my suitcase out to the car. I watched as Edward carried my big suitcase downstairs with improbable ease and I carried a small bag filled with a bottle of water and some entertainment for the flight including a book and my ipod etc.

I watched while Edward placed my suitcase in the boot and lingered by the end of the car, waiting sadly for the time I had to drive off and leave him behind. But then my dad came out, followed by everyone else, and I went to hug each of them goodbye – not my dad, he was driving me to the airport – and even though I'd already hugged him, I couldn't help but be reluctant to let Edward go... again.

With tears in my eyes I said goodbye and got into the car, we drove off and out of the back window I saw Edward start to walk home, down the road we were just driving along.

"Wait!" I shouted when we got to the end of the road.

My dad immediately stopped the car, "What's wrong?"

"I need the toilet, I'll be back in a sec," I said hurriedly as I opened the door and started running down the street back to my house.

I ran wildly down the street with tears in my eyes, I just _had_ to say goodbye to one last time – although I wasn't completely sure I would be able to let go this time – I just wasn't ready to go, I didn't want the last time I saw Edward to be just a crappy little hug outside my house with everyone watching.

I saw him walking around the corner less than a second before I ran straight into him and automatically flinging my arms around his neck again. But this, a plain, simple hug, wasn't enough for me, it would be so long before I could see him again, maybe I could show my feelings now it wont be awkward being around each other – because we won't be around each other. He probably just thinks of me as a friend after all. Edward wrapped his arms around my waist, returning the hug after a moment of surprise, well, it was now or never.

I pulled back and let my eyes roam all over his face, his smooth skin, his brilliant green eyes, his full lips, parted slightly, almost _begging_ for me to kiss him...

I crashed my lips to his and clutched his neck closer to me, it was the best feeling in the world, I felt like I was flying – even higher than I thought possible, I briefly wondered if this feeling was like the high from drugs, but nothing could feel this good. My lips, my hands, every part of my body that touched his felt alive with electricity, a spark so strong, people miles away should have been blinded by it.

It was a chaste kiss, I didn't give him time to react, to push me away and either run away screaming or tell me firmly that we could only be friends.

I stepped back to whisper goodbye to his still shocked face and turned to run back to where my dad was waiting. I got half a step away before his grip suddenly tightened. I braced myself for the humiliation that would surely follow, I guessed it was the firmly stating that we could only be friends option that he would reject me with, but I knew it would still be swift and sharp, and painful. So, imagine how surprised I was when he pulled me back to his chest and started kissing me back. It took my body less than a second to react, my hands wound through his soft, bronze locks and secured his face to mine, my body pushed against his well-defined – or should I say _perfectly-_defined – body and my lips danced with his in such a beautiful dance, I never wanted it to end.

I could hear his ragged breathing along with my pants and felt one hand cupping the back of my neck tenderly, while the other was on the small of my back, crushing my body closer to his. We broke apart gasping for breath and leaned our foreheads together. His hand came from around my neck to cradle my cheek and his thumb wiped away a tear that I didn't know I had.

"I'll miss you so much," he whispered, his breath warmly caressing my face.

"Same here," I whispered back.

We stood there for I don't know how long, but eventually I had to go back, "You better go, or else you'll miss your flight," Edward reluctantly reminded me.

I briefly considered mutiny, staying here and missing the damn flight on purpose, but it just wasn't worth the aggro I'd get from Phill, and possibly my mum – well, it was but I just couldn't leave my mum all alone in phoenix while pregnant.

I reluctantly pulled away and started walking back to the car, the very car that would take me to my doom... ok, I'm kidding, I _probably_ wont be murdered when I go back.

The ride was short and quiet, I never wanted to reach the airport, maybe it wasn't that bad, maybe in my mind I was just exaggerating things, making a mountain out of a molehill, in a petulant kind of way. Maybe Phill was just a little callous and rough while mum was in her own little world all of the time and I was feeling lonely and left out, maybe...

I sat down on the flight and sighed, morose that I was going back, yet resigned to my fate... I swear I never used to be so melodramatic.

As per usual, my mum picked me up from the airport and started rambling on about her latest interest, or fad. I tried to listen but most of it went straight over my head, you really had to be familiar with the finer points of tai chi for her speech to make any sense. She suggested that we could go together and have some sort of mother-daughter bonding session.

When we got to the house I immediately went to my room to deposit my bags before I relaxed and stretched my slightly cramped muscles out. I hauled my heavy bags up the stairs and stopped dead in the entrance to my room...

the walls were painted in rainbow colours, there was a big cot standing shamelessly – almost majestically with the floaty curtains surrounding it – where my bed had been. My bed was nowhere to be found, had they forgotten that I actually lived there?

I searched through all the upstairs rooms in the house, then went downstairs. When there was still no bed, in a last ditch attempt to find my beloved morning companion, I tried the basement, my bed was there, shoved against the wall and all my precious belongings were chucked carelessly in a box dumped on the end of my bed. All my photo-frames that had been gifts from extremely close friends – cough, people from Forks, cough – were crushed at the bottom, the decorative wire on some of the the more delicate frames was bent. I held the first one up gingerly and gazed with wide, horror-struck eyes at the destruction, I was appalled, those photo-frames, plus the photos the housed, had immense sentimental value. I choked on hot air as I burned when my mum – I don't know how she got there – roughly snatched the frame from my hand and, with an exasperated sigh, began yanking the wire back into shape. She got it wrong but I didn't have the heart to correct it – at least not at that moment anyway.

"This will be your new room from no on, sorry we haven't got any paint for the walls yet, but we had to get loads of colours for the new nursery, and Phill says we cant move my clothes here from our dressing room, with me being pregnant coming down here to get dressed in the cold wouldn't be good for the baby," my mum shuddered as she thought about getting dressed in _my new bedroom. _

I sat on the bed in shock, feeling strangely betrayed and like my legs had just been swept out from under me. _Mountain out of a molehill..._ yeah right! I shivered at the cold from the concrete floor seeped through my worn slippers and into my bones. I stared blankly ahead and the beige-greyish, colour-of-nothingish wall opposite me, a few tears escaped but I didn't have the energy to cry, feeling like a prisoner while my mum remained oblivious left me too drained to care at that moment.


	14. lack of inspiration

**Chapter 13 – lack of inspiration **

I never expected sleeping to be so... _hard_ when I was back in Phoenix. Sure it was hot in the day, but at night it turned cold, the low temperature somehow magnified in the basement, with my cold lumpy mattress. Seriously, how had I slept on this thing before? I mean, no matter how I lay on it, there's always a spring digging in some part of me, or if it's not a spring... then I don't even want to think about the weird lump sticking into my left shoulder blade.

Was it irrational to feel so... alone? And abandoned? I mean, I get why the baby needs to sleep close to my mum, but... I don't know, couldn't I have gotten a warning or at least a semi-decent explanation that would assuage my feelings of betrayal? But no, instead I got simply shoved down here without a second thought, why did my mum even want me around? Surely me being here would just take up storage space? Talk about a crash landing into reality.

I woke up early, or at least that's what my body thought, since I had only gotten a few hours of sleep, but Phoenix was an hour ahead of Forks and Phill wasn't exactly pleased about having to wait for his breakfast. I quickly scrambled up the hard wooden steps leading to the kitchen , falling only twice on the smooth wood in my socks, but Phill was there, in the process of storming over to me.

"I hate waiting for my breakfast, so don't make me fucking wait for my breakfast any more, got it?" he almost growled at me as he dragged me, stumbling into the kitchen.

He left me there to make breakfast and went to watch TV in the living room. I then went about making breakfast shakily, after my truncated reprieve from the bastard more commonly known as Phill I was a little unprepared for his... just him, I was unprepared for _him_.

As I made breakfast, my thoughts were in Forks. Was Edward up yet? How was he dealing with his family? _What_ was his deal with his family? I plated up Phill's breakfast and got myself a bowl of cereal, preferring to eat in the kitchen rather than with Phill, the more distance between me and that man the better.

Phill refused to let mum do anything, instead, he had me running all over the place after whatever need or craving my mum had. It was ridiculous! She was only three months along! You could barely see the bump!

A couple of days after returning, I found five minutes to myself, so I went to check my facebook. I had just gotten onto the internet when Phill came crashing through the door and thundering down the stairs. He screamed... something at me – I couldn't actually understand him – and picked my laptop up and smashed it on the floor. While the sound of shattering glass and plastic was still reverberating around my head, Phill's screams intensified and he demanded I hand my phone over.

In my shock I hadn't retained the capacity for rational and coherent thought, so I dumbly handed my phone over. Was he trying to isolate me?

**Edward's pov**

Bella was gone. And it sucked worse than I would've thought. Ok, I know _sucked _isn't quite the word people would use for something like this, but it was oddly appropriate. It felt like there was a vacuum in my chest, right where my heart should be. And it was trying to suck everything in in hopes that at least _something_ it managed to trap would fill the void... but that was something only Bella had the power to do. On the plus side though, she kissed me! That belied the... depression for a few hours, until I woke up the next morning and realised that I couldn't go and see her.

Everyone was waiting for me when I got home, and apart from Rosalie and Alice, they all went ape over my busted up face. Carlisle insisted on examining my face... and then concluded that there was no serious damage and that I would heal fine shortly. Alice had seen it coming and the only reason she hadn't told anyone was that, if she did, they would've come after me... and that really wouldn't've gone well. She also saw that there was nothing anyone could do about it, especially since the decision was made very last minute.

I tried to distract myself, I concentrated on working things out with the vampires, once I'd gotten over the initial shock and fear, and the feelings of betrayal, living with vampires was actually quite cool. I'd never really had time to really think about it before, being so distracted by Bella. Which also led to figuring out how everyone – especially Alice – could be so lively and chipper so early in the morning. The Great Mystery had now been solved! I also realised that, during the time I'd been spending with Bella, I'd actually made a whole lot of new friends for once. So, I ended up spending a lot of time with them.

It was because of my new friends and the novelty of my supernatural family that kept me same throughout the first and most difficult week she was away. Whatever I was doing, I would absently turn to say something to her, each time would send a a pang of sadness through me and set my chest throbbing anew. But I think a couple of people – mainly Leah and Seth – worked out my feelings for her, if it wasn't quite love yet, it was surely close. So they would quickly pull me from my melancholy whenever I would get distracted by her absence.

Soon it was time to go back to school, yet another distraction to keep me floating just above my depression. The ache in my chest for Bella never went away, instead, the burden became familiar and I eventually grew accustomed to it. Of course, just as I got used to missing Bella, everyone – including me – started to worry. After adding Bella on face book and sending her a few quick texts, she hadn't replied. Everyone assured me it usually took her a while to reply to anything as she was usually really busy in phoenix, and would be extra busy now that her mum was pregnant. So I let them soothe my worries and turned my mind from it's distressing path.

After three weeks with still no word from Bella, no-one could deny that something was up. Everyone kept trying to contact her, but all to no avail.

* * *

**A/N – ok I know this is kinda crappy and like the title says... no inspiration what so ever for this chappy. **

**My friend had really wanted this to be updated so I decided to put what I had up because my brain was _really_ not going to produce any more. **

**So I've decided to put this story on hiatus – another reason for putting this up, I hate it when people put up _only_ A/Ns – until either my brain sparks something or if anyone leaves a review or a PM with a good idea – please the more the merrier in that department! **

**So yeah, any kinda feed back would be a story-saver! ...seriously though, no ideas means no story.  
**


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